Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences: Essays on Language, Action and Interpretation [Hardcover]

John B. Thompson's collection of translated essays forms an illuminating introduction to Paul Ricoeur's prolific contributions to sociological theory.John B. Thompson's influential collection of essays by Paul Ricoeur forms a comprehensive and illuminating introduction to Ricoeur's contributions to sociological theory. With a specially commissioned new preface, the book has been revived for a new generation of readers in psychology and the social and political sciences.John B. Thompson's influential collection of essays by Paul Ricoeur forms a comprehensive and illuminating introduction to Ricoeur's contributions to sociological theory. With a specially commissioned new preface, the book has been revived for a new generation of readers in psychology and the social and political sciences.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 undel“2