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" interests: 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.
- ISBN10 0262510413
- ISBN13 9780262510417
- Publish Date 18 March 1988 (first published 19 December 1984)
- Publish Status Unknown
- Out of Print 21 July 2021
- Publish Country US
- Publisher MIT Press Ltd
- Imprint MIT Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 320
- Language English
- URL http://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262510417