Understanding and Explanation: A Transcendental-Pragmatic Perspective

by Karl-Otto Apel, Georgia Warnke (Translator)

Karl-Otto Apel, as much as any German theorist, bridges the gulf between Anglo-American and continental thought in both the style and content of his work. Understanding and Explanation clarifies the "explanation versus understanding" debate that has become central to the philosophy of the social sciences. Apel reexamines the debate over the logic of the social sciences from the perspective of an expanded theory of science, and he proposes a resolution in transcendent-pragmatic terms. He differentiates three legitimate approaches to the social sciences, connected with three "knowledge-constitutive" deductive-nomological sciences, historical-hermeneutic sciences, and critical-reconstructive sciences. Understanding and Explanation is included in the series Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought, edited by Thomas McCarthy.

Genres: Philosophy

317 pages, Paperback

First published December 19, 1984

About the author

Karl-Otto Apel was a German philosopher and Professor Emeritus at the University of Frankfurt am Main. (Source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice synthesis of the causal-nomothetic and hermeneutic tradition. I found it a difficult but rewarding read.