Updating the Interpretive Turn

This book explores the meaning of the interpretive turn in the philosophy of the human sciences for a variety of contemporary philosophical debates. While hermeneutics seems to be firmly established as a tradition and methodology in the human sciences, interpretive philosophy seems to be under increasing pressure in recent philosophical trends such as the "posthuman turn," the "nonhuman turn," and the "speculative turn." Responding to this predicament, this book shows how hermeneutics is gaining new force and fresh applications today by bringing together a group of leading interpretive philosophers to address such timely topics as the entanglement of social science, culture, and politics in liberal capitalist societies, the extremism with which some identities are held within those societies, the possibility of genuine, non-relativist dialogue in a "post-truth" era, the nature of the strong moral judgments people tend to make in that era, the significance of interpretation for understanding nonhuman life forms, and the inherently hermeneutic dimension of such practices as work and productive action, testimony and witnessing, and measurement in scientific practice. Updating the Interpretive Turn will be of interest to researchers working in critical social science, social philosophy, ethical theory, environmental philosophy, philosophy of work, philosophy of testimony, philosophy of measurement, and philosophical hermeneutics itself.

Michiel Meijer is a Lecturer and Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Antwerp. His recent publications include "Articulating Better, Being Better: Ethical Emancipation and the Sources of Motivation." Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (2022) 25:1, 107-122 and "Clarifying Moral Clarification: On Taylor's Contribution to Metaethics." International Journal of Philosophical Studies (2021) 29:5, 705-722.

Introduction: Hermeneutics in the Wake of The Interpretive Turn Michiel Meijer Part I: American Case Studies 1. Worldmaking in the Social Sciences: Double-Hermeneutic Effects, As-If Scenarios, and Narrative Causality Jason Blakely 2. Hermeneutics and Polarized Identities Georgia Warnke Part II: Non-Relativist, Realist, and Non-Anthropocentric Approaches 3. A Hermeneutics of Dialogical Understanding in the "Post-Truth" Era: Ontology, Epistemology, and Ethics Hanna Meretoja 4. What Is Interpretive Metaethics and Why Do We Need It? Michiel Meijer 5. "How Other Kinds of Beings See Us Matters": On the Scope of Interpretation Arne Johan Vetlesen Part III: Interpretation as Practice 6. Hermeneutics as a Metaphilosophy and a Philosophy of Work Nicholas H. Smith 7. Hermeneutics and Testimony: On Selfhood and the Constitution of the Social Bond Gert-Jan van der Heiden 8. Measurement, Hermeneutics, and Standardization: Why Gadamerian Hermeneutics is Necessary to Contemporary Philosophy of Science Leah McClimans Index