The Context of Constitution: Beyond the Edge of Epistemological Justification

ISBN-13: 9781402047121 / Angielski / Twarda / 2006 / 258 str.

Dimitri Ginev

Opis

This study brings together ideas developed over many years in various lectures in an endeavour to clarify the concept of hermeneutic fore-structure of scientific research. The starting point of my investigations was the outline of an interp- tative approach to the constitution of science's cognitive content. In the late 1970s I was preoccupied with a question that nowadays should be formulated as follows: Is it possible to claim a validity of the hermeneutic view of the "situatedness in a tradition" also for the natural sciences? I was convinced that the negative answer implies a self-defeating position. It states that in order to champion the (cultural) universality of hermeneutics, one has to profess the non-hermeneutic nature of the natural sciences. Paradoxically enough, this a- wer presupposes a sharp dividing line (between dialogical experience and monological research) in culture in order to stress the universality of hermeneutics. Long before the period of perestroika in my corner, I learned from Joseph Kockelmans, Patrick Heelan, and Theodore Kisiel how the universalization of hermeneutics can include the natural sciences without ignoring their cognitive specificity. Somewhat later, in the aftermath of the discussions over the "finalization of science," I began to confront the view that it would be a kind of trivializing the struggle for a philosophical hermeneutics if the theory-observation nexus is treated as a specific hermeneutic circle. No doubt, the view is correct. I was, however, dissatisfied with the way of arguing for it.

Spis treści

Preface Introduction 1.The Hermeneutic Task of Re-Reading Kuhn 2. Providing a Rationale for a Hermeneutic Reformulation of Normal Science 3. Against Naturalism, and the Farewell to Normative Epistemology 4. On the Phenomenological Background of Cognitive Existentialism 5. Beyond the Context-Distinction 6. The Post-Epistemological Dimension of the Context of Constitution Chapter One – Ideas for the Situated Transcendence of Scientific Research Introduction Philosophical Hermeneutics and Hermeneutics of Scientific Research Heidegger’s Ideas for the Constitutional Analysis of Scientific Research Postwar Ideas for the Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Science Against Cognitive Essentialism and the Possibility of a Cognitive Existentialism Chapter Two – Reformulating the Concept of 'Normal Science' in the Framework of Hermeneutic Phenomenology Normal Science, Practice Theory, and Kuhn’s Historicism Framework-Reading Versus Tradition-Bound-Reading of Normal Science Community’s Consensus and Situated Transcendence Chapter Three – Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Scientific Research Introductory Note b. Hermeneutic Fore-Structure, Cognitive Structure, and Research Everydayness c. Pre-Narrativity of Normal Scientific Research d. A Passage to Macro-Hermeneutics of Modern Science e. Thematizing Projects and Types of Scientific Research f. Non-Reductionist Unity and Non-Relativist Disunity of Science Chapter Four – The Normativity of Normal Science: Hermeneutic Contextualism andProto-Normativity Historical Note Between Wittgenstein and Heidegger The First Step: Normal Science’s Normativity in Terms of Holistic Epistemology The Second Step: Towards a Hermeneutic Theory of Proto-Normativity Notes Name Index References

O autorze

Dimitri Ginev, Prof. Dr., Studium von Medizin, Kunstgeschichte und hermeneutischer Methodologie in Sofia, wo er als außerordentlicher Universitätsprofessor lehrt. Forschungsaufenthalte und Gastprofessuren in Marburg, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Bielefeld, Bremen, Bochum, Leipzig, Melbourne und Pittsburgh sowie an der Western Kentucky University, der Penn State University und der Catholic University of America. Seit 1995 Mitglied der New York Academy of Sciences.