Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis

CONTENTS

CONTENTS Preface ix Acknowledgments xvii PART ONE BEYOND OBJECTIVISM AND RELATIVISM: AN OVERVIEW 1 Objectivism and Relativism 8 The Cartesian Anxiety 16 Postempiricist Philosophy and History of Science 20 The Idea of a Social Science 25 The Recovery of the Hermeneutical Dimension of Science 30 Philosophic Hermeneutics: A Primordial Mode of Being 34 Hermeneutics and Praxis 38 Political Judgment and Practical Discourse 44 Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis 45 PART Two SCIENCE, RATIONALITY, AND INCOMMENSURABILITY 51 The Practical Rationality of Theory-Choice 52 Kuhn and His Critics: The Common Ground 61 The Development of the Philosophy of Science 71 Incommensurability and the Natural Sciences 79 Incommensurability and the Social Disciplines 93 PART THREE FROM HERMENEUTICS TO PRAXIS 109 The Cartesian Legacy 115 Truth and the Experience of Art 118 Understanding and Prejudice 126 The Hermeneutical Circle 131 Temporal Distance, Effective-Historical Consciousness, and the Fusion of Horizons 139 Application: The Rediscovery of the Fundamental Hermeneutical Problem 144 The Movement Beyond Philosophic Hermeneutics 150 Philosophic Hermeneutics and the Cartesian Anxiety 165 PART FOUR PRAXIS, PRACTICAL DISCOURSE, AND JUDGMENT 171 A Historical Interlude 175 Practical Discourse: Habermas 182 Rorty's Metacritique 197 Judgment: Arendt 207 Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: The Practical Task 223 Notes 233 Appendix: A Letter by Professor Hans-Georg Gadamer 261 Bibliography 267 Subject Index 277 Index of Names 282 ...