Action as a Text
Gadamer's Hermeneutics and the Social Scientific Analysis of Action
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8975460 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Susan Hekman (The University of Texas at Arlington, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1984 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 333-354 |
| Publication date | 1984-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8308 • E-ISSN: 1468-5914 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1468-5914.1984.tb00501.x |
| OpenAlex | W2094919643 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 15 |
This paper argues that Gadamer's hermeneutics offers a methodological perspective for social and political theory that overcomes the impasse created by the dichotomy between the positivist and humanist approaches to social action. Both the positivists’attempt to replace the actors’subjective concepts with the objective concepts of the social scientist and the humanists’attempt to describe meaningful action strictly in the social actors’terms have been called into question in contemporary discussions. Gadamer's approach, which is based on the hermeneutical method of textual interpretation, offers an alternative to both the positivist and humanist perspectives. Gadamer argues that understanding a text involves the fusing of the conceptual schemes of author and interpreter. Relying on Ricoeur's analysis of the parallels between actions and texts, it is argued that this understanding of the process of textual interpretation can be profitably applied to the analysis of social action. This application, furthermore, provides a means of analyzing social action that transcends the dichotomy between the positivist and humanist approaches. Gadamer's approach legitimizes the imposition of the observer's conceptual scheme without denying the constitutive role of the social actors’concepts
Action (physics · Epistemology · Hermeneutics · Humanism · Interpretation (philosophy · Interpreter · Linguistics · Positivism · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity · Philosophy · Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education
An introduction to the textuality of organizations
Social theory and overinterpretation
Education as Text
Chinese responses to Shanghai’s performance in Pisa
The scientist” as role model for “the psychologist”
On the Method of Analysing Human Transactions Recorded on Videotape
Fusion of horizons
Hermeneutics and Interpretation in Anthropology
Meaning and understanding in the history of ideas
The Political Thought of John Locke
Collected Papers
Interpretive Social Science
The Rule of Metaphor
Political Commentary on the History of Political Theory
The Explanation of Social Behavior
Quid Facti or Quid Juris? The Fundamental Ambiguity of Gadamer's Understanding of Hermeneutics
Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas
Political Theory and the Theory of Action
Central Problems in Social Theory
Validity in Interpretation
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,2 |
| Citation span | 1986 - 2023 (38) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |