1st Edition

Hermeneutic Dialogue and Social Science A Critique of Gadamer and Habermas

By Austin Harrington Copyright 2001
    192 Pages
    by Routledge

    196 Pages
    by Routledge

    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.

    Introduction; Chapter 1 Objectivity, objectivism and objectifying attitudes; Chapter 2 Gadamer, Habermas and the idea of dialogue; Chapter 3 Empathy and Verstehen; Chapter 4 Towards a critique of historical reason; Chapter 5 Phenomenological foundations; Chapter 6 Problems with the dialogue; Chapter 7 Social science in the public sphere; Notes; Bibiography Index;

    Biography

    Austin Harrington is Lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds. His work on hermeneutics and social theory in the writings of Gadamer, Habermas, Dilthey, Weber and Schütz has also appeared in the journals Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, Theory and Psychology, Max Weber Studies and Sociology.