CONTEXT OF CONTITUTION, THE - BEYOND THE EDGE OF EPISTEMOLOGICAL JUSTIFICATION

Whether philosophy of science is crucially tied down to epistemological justification is a significant topic of current debates. This book sets out an extensive argument against the foundationalist theories of justification. In developing a project of a hermeneutic context of constitution, it advocates new life for philosophy of science. At the present, there seems to be no middle ground between analytic approaches to scientific knowledge and hermeneutic conceptions of scientific research. The author brings together aspects of an ontology of the interpretative constitution of research objects and a holistic picture of science’s cognitive structures. Yet the book is by no means an attempt to reconcile holistic epistemology and hermeneutic phenomenology. The context of constitution goes beyond both enterprises. Spelling out this context leads to the view of "cognitive existentialism" by means of which the author takes a fresh look at key issues in theory of scientific practices, hermeneutics of research traditions, taxonomy of the types of scientific inquiry, and phenomenology of proto-normativity. The book is conceived of as a contribution to a wide range of problems concerning the post-Gadamerian extension of philosophical hermeneutics beyond the scope of the traditional humanistic culture.