Hermeneutics as Critique: Science, Politics, Race, and Culture

Lorenzo C. Simpson

Published by Columbia University Press 2020

Hermeneutics as Critique

Science, Politics, Race, and Culture

Lorenzo C. Simpson

Volume 72 in the series New Directions in Critical Theory

https://doi.org/10.7312/simp19684

Overview
Contents

About this book

Lorenzo C. Simpson offers a persuasive and powerful argument that hermeneutics is a valuable tool not only for critical theory but also for addressing many of the urgent issues of today. He shows its utility for unpacking intractable debates in the philosophy of science, multiculturalism, social epistemology, and racial and social justice.

Author / Editor information

Lorenzo C. Simpson is professor of philosophy at Stony Brook University. His books include Technology, Time, and the Conversations of Modernity (1995) and The Unfinished Project: Towards a Postmetaphysical Humanism (2001).

Reviews

Seyla Benhabib, professor emerita of political science and philosophy at Yale University and senior research fellow at Columbia Law School:
Lorenzo Simpson's Hermeneutics as Critique is a path-breaking contribution to the defense of hermeneutics, not just as a method of text interpretation but also as a critical philosophy with wide-ranging power to illuminate cultural dilemmas. Hermeneutics is commonly understood to espouse a coherentist account of truth and a contextualist understanding of culture; as such, it seems devoid of an ideology-critical moment to invalidate established types and classifications or repudiate cultural belief systems. Through a lucid and elegantly written account, Simpson shows how hermeneutics can be practiced as a critical philosophy of science and of culture. The best contribution to the hermeneutics-critical theory discussion since the Habermas-Gadamer debate.

Kenneth Baynes, author of Habermas:
In this engaging study, Simpson reaffirms the relevance of a critical hermeneutics for the full range of human inquiry and practice, including science, politics, and sociocultural understanding. He decisively rebuts the common charge of relativism and makes original and valuable contributions to discussions about critical rationality, social agency, race, and cross-cultural interpretation.

Georgia Warnke, author of After Identity: Rethinking Race, Sex, and Gender:
I know of no other book expansive enough to cover issues in hermeneutics, critical theory, the philosophy of science, multiculturalism, race, social epistemology, and global justice at all, much less in the depth that Lorenzo Simpson covers them in Hermeneutics as Critique. Here Simpson takes the tradition of hermeneutics to the next level with clarity, elegance, and insight.

Robert Gooding-Williams, author of In the Shadow of Du Bois: Afro-Modern Political Thought in America:
Simpson’s book is a stunning intellectual achievement that deftly demonstrates the power of philosophical hermeneutics to illuminate ongoing debates about scientific theory choice, the nature and autonomy of human agency, and the biological significance of race. The argumentation is learned and precise, the depth of philosophical insight extraordinary!

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
INTRODUCTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 Twin Earth and Its Horizons: On Hermeneutics, Reference, and Scientific Theory Choice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	24
2 Critical Fusions: Toward a Genuine “Hermeneutics of Suspicion” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
3 Agency, the “Politics of Memory,” and Reparative Justice: Hermeneutics and the Politics of Development Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
4 Toward a Hermeneutics of Race: Biology, Race, Ethnicity, and Culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
5 Concluding Reflections: Toward a New Reconciliation of Hermeneutics and Critical Theory, or Notes Toward a Hermeneutic Democracy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
Appendix: Toward a Hermeneutics of the Ethical Response Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Keywords: hermeneutics; critical theory; philosophy of race; reparations; hermeneutics of race; racial identity

eBook

Published: February 25, 2021
ISBN: 9780231551854