Hermeneutic Philosophies of Social Science

Hermeneutic Philosophies of Social Science PDF

Author: Babette Babich

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2017-10-23

Total Pages: 445

ISBN-13: 3110551578

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Hermeneutic philosophies of social science offer an approach to the philosophy of social science foregrounding the human subject and including attention to history as well as a methodological reflection on the notion of reflection, including the intrusions of distortions and prejudice. Hermeneutic philosophies of social science offer an explicit orientation to and concern with the subject of the human and social sciences. Hermeneutic philosophies of the social science represented in the present collection of essays draw inspiration from Gadamer’s work as well as from Paul Ricoeur in addition to Michel de Certeau and Michel Foucault among others. Special attention is given to Wilhelm Dilthey in addition to the broader phenomenological traditions of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger as well as the history of philosophy in Plato and Descartes. The volume is indispensible reading for students and scholars interested in epistemology, philosophy of science, social social studies of knowledge as well as social studies of technology.

New Philosophies of Social Science: Realism, Hermeneutics and Critical Theory

New Philosophies of Social Science: Realism, Hermeneutics and Critical Theory PDF

Author: William Outhwaite

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 1987-12-08

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 1349189464

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The demise of empiricist philosophies of science has contributed to the current disarray of philosophy in the social sciences. This book argues that a realist analysis of the structures and processes which make up the social world can provide a way out of its present impasse. These processes, ranging from the interpersonal negotiation of meaning to the constraining influence of administrative or market structures, cannot be understood as mere constructs either in the minds of the theorist or of the social factors themselves, since they actually generate the social world as we know it. The author develops some implications of this approach and presents a realist view of some of the principal theoretical traditions and controversies within sociology and other social sciences.

Continental Philosophy of Social Science

Continental Philosophy of Social Science PDF

Author: Yvonne Sherratt

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2005-10-17

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 1139448552

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Continental Philosophy of Social Science demonstrates the unique and autonomous nature of the continental approach to social science and contrasts it with the Anglo-American tradition. Yvonne Sherratt argues for the importance of an historical understanding of the Continental tradition in order to appreciate its individual, humanist character. Examining the key traditions of hermeneutic, genealogy, and critical theory, and the texts of major thinkers such as Gadamer, Ricoeur, Derrida, Nietzsche, Foucault, the Early Frankfurt School and Habermas, she also contextualizes contemporary developments within strands of thought stemming back to Ancient Greece and Rome. Sherratt shows how these modes of thinking developed through medieval Christian thought into the Enlightenment and Romantic eras, before becoming mainstays of twentieth-century disciplines. Continental Philosophy of Social Science will serve as the essential textbook for courses in philosophy or social sciences.

Hermeneutic Dialogue and Social Science

Hermeneutic Dialogue and Social Science PDF

Author: Austin Harrington

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-01-11

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 1135132852

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This book explores the writings of Gadamer and Habermas on hermeneutics and the methodology of the social sciences. By re-examining their views of earlier interpretive theorists, from Wilhelm Dilthey to Max Weber and Alfred Schutz, it offers a radical challenge to their idea of the 'dialogue' between researchers and their subjects.

Hermeneutics and Social Science (Routledge Revivals)

Hermeneutics and Social Science (Routledge Revivals) PDF

Author: Zygmunt Bauman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-03-23

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 1136955542

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Originally published in 1978, this important work, by one of the leading European social theorists, is arguably the best introduction to the hermeneutic tradition as a whole. It is designed to help students of sociology and philosophy place the problems of "understanding social science" in their historical and philosophical context. It does so by presenting the major current in sociological thought as responses to the challenge of hermeneutics. The idea that true knowledge of social life can be attained only if human conduct is seen as meaningful action whose meaning is accordingly grasped has been presented as a discovery of recent sociology. In fact its history is long and its connections plentiful, reaching beyond the boundaries of sociology itself. Yet it is in sociology that the hermeneutic tradition has attracted most interest but most misinterpretation. The debate is in full swing and there is no attempt to offer "correct" solutions - the emphasis instead is upon revealing the strengths and weaknesses of each of the main approaches. However it is Bauman's view that the theory of understanding may achieve valid results only if it treats the problem of understanding as an aspect of the ongoing process of social life.

Hermeneutic Philosophies of Social Science

Hermeneutic Philosophies of Social Science PDF

Author: Babette Babich

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2017-10-23

Total Pages: 445

ISBN-13: 311055156X

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Hermeneutic philosophies of social science offer an approach to the philosophy of social science foregrounding the human subject and including attention to history as well as a methodological reflection on the notion of reflection, including the intrusions of distortions and prejudice. Hermeneutic philosophies of social science offer an explicit orientation to and concern with the subject of the human and social sciences. Hermeneutic philosophies of the social science represented in the present collection of essays draw inspiration from Gadamer’s work as well as from Paul Ricoeur in addition to Michel de Certeau and Michel Foucault among others. Special attention is given to Wilhelm Dilthey in addition to the broader phenomenological traditions of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger as well as the history of philosophy in Plato and Descartes. The volume is indispensible reading for students and scholars interested in epistemology, philosophy of science, social social studies of knowledge as well as social studies of technology.

Social Science

Social Science PDF

Author: Delanty, Gerard

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)

Published: 2005-06-01

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 0335217214

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What is social science? Does social scientific knowledge differ from other kinds of knowledge, such as the natural sciences and common sense? What is the relation between method and knowledge? This concise and accessible book provides a critical discussion and comprehensive overview of the major philosophical debates on the methodological foundations of the social sciences. From its origins in the sixteenth century when a new system of knowledge was created around the idea of modernity, the author shows how the philosophy of social science developed as a reflection on some of the central questions in modernity. Visions of modernity have been reflected in the self-understanding of the social sciences. From the positivist dispute on explanation vs. understanding to controversies about standpoint to debates about constructivism and realism, Delanty outlines the major shifts in the philosophy of social science. He argues that social science is an intellectual framework for the transformation of the social world. The new edition is updated and expanded throughout with the latest developments in the field, including a new chapter on feminist standpoint epistemology, and additional material on neo-positivism, pragmatism, and reflexivity. This is one of the most ambitious and wide-ranging texts in recent years on debates on method and the contemporary situation of social science. It is of interest to undergraduate students and postgraduates as well as to professional researchers with an interest in the philosophy of the social sciences and social theory.

Hermeneutics and Social Science

Hermeneutics and Social Science PDF

Author: Zygmunt Bauman

Publisher: Ashgate Publishing

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 9780751200454

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This important work, by one of the leading European social theorists, is arguably the best introduction to the hermeneutic tradition as a whole. It is designed to help students of sociology and philosophy place the problems of understanding social science in their historical and philosophical context. It does so by presenting the major current in sociological thought as responses to the challenge of hermeneutics.

Verstehen

Verstehen PDF

Author: Michael Martin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-04-17

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1351327100

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In late nineteenth-century German academic circles, the term verstehen (literally, understanding, or comprehension) came to be associated with the view that social phenomena must be understood from the point of view of the social actor. Advocates of this approach were opposed by positivists who stressed the unity of method between the social and natural sciences and an external, experimental, and quantitative knowledge. Although modified over time, the dispute between positivists and antipositivists--nowadays called naturalists and antinaturalists--has persisted and still defines many debates in the field of philosophy of social sciences. In this volume, Michael Martin offers a critical appraisal of verstehen as a method of verification and discovery as well as a necessary condition for understanding. In its strongest forms, verstehen entails subjectively reliving the experience of the social actor or at least rethinking his or her thoughts, while in its weaker forms it only involves reconstructing the rationale for acting. Martin's opening chapter offers a reconsideration of the debate between the classical verstehen theorists--Wilhelm Dilthey, Max Weber, R.G. Collingwood--and the positivists. Chapters 2 and 3 deal with positivist critiques of verstehen as a method of social scientific verification and understanding. In the subsequent chapters Martin considers contemporary varieties of the verstehen position and argues that they like the classical positions, they conflict with the pluralistic nature of social science. Chapter 4 discusses Peter Winch's and William Dray's variants of verstehen, while chapters 5 through 9 consider recent theorists--Karl Popper, Charles Taylor, Clifford Geertz--whose work can be characterized in verstehenist terms: In his conclusion Martin defines the limitations of the classical and recent verstehen positions and proposes a methodological pluralism in which verstehen is justified pragmatically in terms of the purposes and contexts of inquiry. This volume is the only comprehensive and sustained critique of verstehen theory currently available. It will be of interest to sociologists, philosophers, political scientists, and anthropologists.