Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences Essays on Language, Action and Interpretation

Collected and translated by John B. Thompson, this collection of essays by Paul Ricoeur includes many that had never appeared in English before the volume's publication in 1981. As comprehensive as it is illuminating, this lucid introduction to Ricoeur's prolific contributions to sociological theory features his more recent writings on the history of hermeneutics, its central themes and issues, his own constructive position and its implications for sociology, psychoanalysis and history. Presented in a fresh twenty-first-century series livery, and including a specially commissioned preface written by Charles Taylor, illuminating its enduring importance and relevance to philosophical enquiry, this classic work has been revived for a new generation of readers.

Preface to this edition Charles Taylor; Acknowledgements; Editor's introduction; Notes on editing and translating; A response Paul Ricoeur; Part I. Studies in the History of Hermeneutics: 1. The task of hermeneutics; 2. Hermeneutics and the critique of ideology; 3. Phenomenology and hermeneutics; Part II. Studies in the Theory of Interpretation: 4. The hermeneutical function of distanciation; 5. What is a text? Explanation and understanding; 6. Metaphor and the central problem of hermeneutics; 7. Appropriation; Part III. Studies in the Philosophy of Social Science: 8. The model of the text: meaningful action considered as a text; 9. Science and ideology; 10. The question of proof in Freud's psychoanalytic writings; 11. The narrative function; Notes; Select bibliography; Index.

Paul Ricoeur (1913–2005) was one of the leading philosophers of the twentieth century, most famous for his methodological approach of combining hermeneutics and phenomenology.
John B. Thompson is Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. He has written extensively on contemporary social and political theory and his most recent publications include Merchants of Culture (2010) and Books in the Digital Age (2005).