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Yvonne Sherratt argues for the importance of an historical understanding of the continental traditional approach to social science in order to appreciate its individual, humanist character. Examining the key traditions of hermeneutic, genealogical 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. Sherrat demonstrates how these modes of thinking developed through the ages to become part of twentieth-century disciplines.
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P1: JZZ 0521854695pre CUNY083B/Sherratt January 25, 2006 0 521 85469 5 This page intentionally left blank ii 9:59 P1: JZZ 0521854695pre CUNY083B/Sherratt 0 521 85469 5 January 25, 2006 9:59 Continental Philosophy of Social Science Hermeneutics, Genealogy and Critical Theory from Ancient Greece to the Twenty-First Century This is the first English-language book dedicated to the Continental tradition in the philosophy of social science. It seeks to demonstrate the unique nature of the continental approach to the philosophy of social science and contrast this with the Anglo-American rubric. The subject matter spans the traditions of hermeneutics, genealogy and critical theory, examining the key texts and theories of thinkers like Gadamer, Ricoeur, Derrida, Nietzsche, Foucault, the Early Frankfurt School and Habermas. The approach is highly original in that it shows the historical depth of these mainstays of twentieth-century thought by tracing their ideas back to origins in Ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Christian thought, the Enlightenment and Romanticism. Throughout, Yvonne Sherratt argues for the importance of historical understanding in order to appreciate the distinct, humanist character of Continental philosophy of social science. This book will form the essential bedrock of any course in the philosophy of the social or human sciences. It is also an essential counterpoint to extant texts in the field and has widespread inter-disciplinary appeal. Yvonne Sherratt is British Academy Researcher in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oxford. She has taught at the Universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh and Wales, and she is the author of Adorno’s Positive Dialectic. i P1: JZZ 0521854695pre CUNY083B/Sherratt January 25, 2006 0 521 85469 5 ii 9:59 P1: JZZ 0521854695pre CUNY083B/Sherratt 0 521 85469 5 January 25, 2006 9:59 Continental Philosophy of Social Science Hermeneutics, Genealogy and Critical Theory from Ancient Greece to the Twenty-First Century Y VONNE SHERRATT University of Oxford and University of Wales iii Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge , UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521854696 © Yvonne Sherratt 2006 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format - - - - - - eBook (EBL) - - - eBook (EBL) - - - - - - hardback - - - hardback - - - - - - paperback - - - paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility