Continental Philosophy

Continental Philosophy of Social Science
Yvonne Sherratt
University of Oxford

Continental Philosophy of Social Science demonstrates the unique and autonomous nature of the continental approach to social science and contrasts it with the Anglo-American tradition. Yvonne Sherratt argues for the importance of an historical understanding of the Continental tradition in order to appreciate its individual, humanist character. Examining the key traditions of hermeneutic, genealogy, 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. Sherratt shows how these modes of thinking developed through medieval Christian thought into the Enlightenment and Romantic eras, before becoming mainstays of twentieth-century disciplines. Continental Philosophy of Social Science will serve as the essential textbook for courses in philosophy or social sciences.

• Specializes in European traditions of the philosophy of social sciences • Contextualizes European tradition against Anglo-American approaches • Places familiar names like Gadamer, Habermas, Foucault, and Derrida in deep traditions of history and European thought

Contents
Introduction; Part I. The Tradition of Hermeneutics: 1. Ancient hermeneutics; 2. Biblical hermeneutics; 3. German philosophical hermeneutics: Enlightenment and Romanticism; 4. German philosophical hermeneutics: phenomenology and Existentialism; 5. Continental philosophical hermeneutics post-war; Part II. The Tradition of Genealogy: 1. The history of genealogy: Nietzsche; 2. The theory of genealogy: Foucault; 3. Application of genealogy; Part III. The Tradition of Critical Theory: 1. The history of critical theory; 2. Critical theory I; 3. Critical theory II.