Toward a Postpositivist World
Hermeneutics for Understanding International Relations, Environment, and Other Important Issues of the Twenty-First Century
Will be published approx. on 1. May 1996
Book
Hardback
XXX, 185 pages
978-0-8204-2486-6 (ISBN)
Description
One of the oldest philosophies in European intellectual history, Hermeneutics emerged as a process for interpreting scripture and for analyzing jurisprudence, history, and linguistics. In a contemporary context, Hermeneutics offers important opportunities for theory development in the social sciences. This new analysis of Hermeneutics addresses its theoretical possibilities for political science, in general, and for international relations, in particular. It discusses the history and development of both Hermeneutic philosophy and international relations theory and explores approaches for deriving new methodologies appropriate for the study of international relations. The work argues that political scientists face a crucial juncture in their field. The fissure between the «scientific» and the «interpretive», between the «empirical» and the «qualitative», has revealed inadequacies in these traditions, while at the same time, world events have called into question old theoretical approaches. This study offers Hermeneutics as a fertile field for the growth of new theories to political scientists seriously engaged in the reexamination of their discipline.
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Persons
The Author: Katrina S. Rogers lectures at the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) and is Director of the High West Center for Environmental Policy Studies. Dr. Rogers first undertook the study of Hermeneutics as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Tübingen. She completed Toward a Postpositivist World as a Bundeskanzler Scholar with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the University of Konstanz where she was also a lecturer in the Fakultät für Politikwissenschaft.