Empathy And Agency: The Problem Of Understanding In The Human Sciences

How do we, as interpreters and theorists in the human and social sciences, understand agency? What are the methods, models, and mediating theoretical frameworks that allow us to give a reliable and adequate account of beliefs, actions, and cultural practices? More specifically, how can we as interpretive analysts employ our own cognitive capacities

Hans Herbert Kogler is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of North Florida. He is the author of Michel Foucault: Ein anti-humanistischer Aufklarer (1994) and The Power of Dialogue: Critical Hermeneutics after Gadamer and Foucalt (1996), as well as numerous articles in interpretive and social philosophy. Karsten R. Stueber is associate professor of philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross. He is the author of Donald Davidson's Theory of Linguistic Understanding (1993) and co-editor of Philosophie der Skepsis (1996). He has also published articles on Wittgenstein, the philosophy of language, epistemology, and philosophy of mind.