RATIONALITY, RELATIVISM AND THE HUMAN SCIENCES

Transcription

1 RATIONALITY, RELATIVISM AND THE HUMAN SCIENCES

2 STUDIES OF THE GREATER PHILADELPHIA PHILOSOPHY CONSORTIUM J. MARGOLIS, M. KRAUSZ and R.M. BURIAN Series Editors J. Margolis, M. Krausz and R.M. Burian, eds. Rationality, Relativism and the Human Sciences ISBN

3 RATIONALITY, RELATIVISM AND THE HUMAN SCIENCES edited by J. MARGOLIS Temple University M. KRAUSZ Bryn Mawr College R.M. BURIAN Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 1986 MARTINUS NIJHOFF PUBLISHERS... a member of the KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP,_ DORDRECHT / BOSTON / LANCASTER...

4 Distributors jar the United States and Canada: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 101 Philip Drive, Assinippi Park, Norwell, MA 02061, USA jar the UK and Ireland: Kluwer Academic Publishers, MTP Press Limited, Falcon House, Queen Square, Lancaster LAI 1 RN, UK jar all other countries: Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, Distribution Center, P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Rationality, relativism. and the human sciences. (Studies of the Greater Philadelphia Philosophy Consortium) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Philosophy--Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Margolis, Joseph Za1man, II. Krausz, Michael. III. Burian, Richard M. IV. Series. B29.R ISBN-13: DOl: / e-isbn-13 : Copyright 1986 by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 1986 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, P.O. Box 163, 3300 AD Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

5 v CONTENTS Preface viii I Why Studies of Human Capacities Modeled on Ideal Natural Science Can Never Achieve Their Goal Hubert L. Dreyfus (Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley) 3 Narrative versus Analysis in History W.H. Dray (Philosophy, University of Ottawa) 23 Heidegger's Philosophy of Science: The Two Essences of Science John D. Caputo (Philosophy, Villanova University) 43 II The Intelligibility of Action Alasdair MacIntyre (Philosophy, Vanderbilt University) How to Interpret Actions Amelie Oksenberg Rorty (Philosophy, Rutgers University) Mind as a Social Formation Rom Harre (Philosophy, Oxford University) III Intentionality and Rationality Dagfinn F\l111esdal (Philosophy, University of Oslo and Stanford University) The Rationality of Science Hugh Lacey (Philosophy, Swarthmore College) Heuristics for Scientific and Literary Creativity: The Role of Models, Analogies, and Metaphors Eugene Lashchyk (Philosophy, La Salle University)

6 VI IV Art and Its Mythologies: A Relativist View Michael Krausz (Philosophy, Bryn Mawr College) On Relativity, Relativism, and Social Theory Braulio Munoz (Sociology, Swarthmore College) Rationality and Realism Joseph Margolis (Philosophy, Temple University) Index of Names

7 VII PREFACE The Greater Philadelphia Philosophy Consortium was launched in the early eighties. It began during a particularly lean period in the American economy. But its success is linked as much to the need to be in touch with the rapidly changing currents of the philosophical climate as with the need to insure an adequately stocked professional community in the Philadelphia area faced, perhaps permanently, with the threat of increasing attrition. The member schools of the Consortium now include Bryn Mawr College, the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, and Villanova University, that is, the schools of the area that offer advanced degrees in philosophy. The philosophy faculties of these schools form the core of the Consortium, which offers graduate students the instructional and library facilities of each member school. The Consortium is also supported by the associated faculties of other regional schools that do not offer advanced degrees - notably, those at Drexel University, Haverford College, La Salle University, and Swarthmore College - both philosophers and members of other departments as well as interested and professionally qualified persons from the entire region. The affiliated and core professionals now number several hundreds, and the Consortium's various ventures have been received most enthusiastically by the academic community. At this moment, the Consortium is planning its fifth year of what it calls the Conferences on the Philosophy of the Human Studies. These Conferences were begun sometime before the Consortium was formed, through the cooperation of two of the editors of the present collection, representing Bryn Mawr and Temple. The Conferences - and the whole spirit of the Consortium - have been focused on the need to bridge the gap between Anglo-American and Continental movements in philosophy and to widen the professional focus of philosophy itself so that it is genuinely interdisciplinary and informed at the highest level about pioneer work in all the other sciences and humanities, with special attention to the developing role of what have come to be called the human studies or human sciences. The essays here collected are the first published efforts of this large cooperative venture. The papers have been culled from some of the recent Conferences as well as from the ongoing work of the fortnightly sessions of the Consortium's own study group, that has gradually achieved an enviable level of professional exchange. These papers, then, suggest some of the new directions in which the professionals of our area are pressing, both in terms of a developing but generously construed regional consensus and in terms of coming to terms in a fresh way with the principal, most influential currents of contemporary philosophy.

8 VIII We have not wished to hurry into print, and we have in fact waited rather patiently for a naturally cohering collection of papers to gather before launching any publications. Now, however, that this maiden volume is actually a public event, we invite the philosophical community to enter into the spirit and letter of exchange that, within the Consortium, we have, to our great delight, found it possible to sustain. In fact, the cooperative nature of the present volume says as much about the willingness of our visiting lecturers to enter into our venture as it does about a very active local membership. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania June 1985 The Editors