Ideas for Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Natural Sciences (published in 1993 as volume 15 of this series) comprised mainly ontological reflections on the natural sciences. That book explained why the natural sciences must be considered inherently interpretive in character, and clarified the conditions under which scientific interpretations are "legitimate" and may be called "true". This companion volume focuses on methodological issues. Its first part elucidates the methodical hermeneutics developed in the 19th century by Boeckh, Birt, Dilthey, and others. Its second part, through the use of concrete examples drawn from modern physics as it unfolded from Copernicus to Maxwell, clarifies and "proves" the main points of the ontologico-hermeneutical conception of the sciences elaborated in the earlier volume. It thereby both illuminates the most important problems confronting an ontologico-phenomenological approach to the natural sciences and offers an alternative to Kuhn's conception of the historical development of the natural sciences.

Von Hermann's Hermeneutics and Reflection, translated here from the original German, represents the most fundamental and critical reflection in any language of the concept of phenomenology as it was used by Heidegger and by Husserl.

This remarkable volume attests to the world-wide development of a hermeneutical approach to the natural sciences. Questions raised by the essays include: What is a phenomenology of 'scientific' perception? How does meaning arise out of laboratory situations? How do individuals or groups come to terms with the particular problem situations in which they find themselves by drawing on the available conceptual and practical resources which structure these situations? The essays are organized around three central themes. One group of authors (Heelan, Kockelmans, and Gremmen/Jacobs) recalls and applies existing historical resources of hermeneutical phenomenology to current scientific and social issues. A second group (Kisiel, Eger) considers the differences between a specifically hermeneutical approach to science and related approaches such as cultural studies and social constructivism. A third group (Ihde, Gendlin) seeks to forge new directions and tools for understanding natural scientific practice. As Crease's introductory essay makes plain, the authors share the commitment of hermeneutical philosophy to the priority of meaning over technique, the primacy of the practical over the theoretical, and the priority of situation over abstract formulation. In the process, the authors revive and transform the ancient Greek idea that the key to living well, to being fully and authentically human, resides primarily in the exercise of the practical not the theoretical virtues, in the art of doing well in the workworld and acting well in the polis.

In this book the author has brought together his long-standing interests in theory of scientific rationality and hermeneutic ontology by developing a hermeneutic alternative to analytic (and naturalist) epistemology of science. The hermeneutic philosophy of science is less the name of a new field of philosophical than a demand for a repetition of the basic philosophical questions of science from hermeneutic point of view. The book addresses chiefly two subjects: (I) The hermeneutic response to the models of rational reconstruction of scientific knowledge; (II) The specificity of hermeneutico-ontological approach to the cognitive pluralism in science.

This book offers new reflections on the life world, from both phenomenological and hermeneutic perspectives. It presents a prism for a new philosophy of science and technology, especially including the social sciences but also the environment as well as questions of ethics and philosophical aesthetics in addition to exploring the themes of theology and religion. Inspired by the many contributions made by the philosopher Joseph Kockelmans, this book examines the past, present and future prospects of hermeneutic phenomenology. It raises key questions of truth and method as well as highlights both continental and analytic traditions of philosophy. Contributors to The Multidimensionality of Hermeneutic Phenomenology include leading scholars in the field as well as new voices representing analytic philosophers of science, hermeneutic and phenomenological philosophers of science, scholars of comparative literature, theorists of environmental studies, specialists in phenomenological ethics and experts in classical hermeneutics.

This unique book offers an original way of thinking about two of the most significant problems confronting modern theoretical physics: the unification of the forces of nature and the evolution of the universe. In bringing out the inadequacies of the prevailing approach to these questions, the author demonstrates the need for more than just a new theory. The meanings of space and time themselves must be radically rethought, which requires a whole new philosophical foundation. To this end, the book turns to the phenomenological writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Martin Heidegger. Their insights into space and time bring the natural world to life in a manner well-suited to the dynamic phenomena of contemporary physics.In aligning continental thought with problems in physics and cosmology, the book makes use of topology. Phenomenological intuitions about space and time are systematically fleshed out via an unconventional and innovative approach to this qualitative branch of mathematics. The author's pioneering work in topological phenomenology is applied to such topics as quantum gravity, cosmogony, symmetry, spin, vorticity, dimension theory, Kaluza-Klein and string theories, fermion-boson interrelatedness, hypernumbers, and the mind-matter interface.