Thomas Seebohm on the Foundations of the Sciences : An Analysis and Critical Appraisal

This book explores the work of Thomas Seebohm (1934-2014), a leading phenomenologist and hermeneuticist. It features papers that offer a critical and constructive dialogue about Seebohm’s analyses and their implications for the sciences. The net result is an in-depth study and a helpful overview of Seebohm’s general approach and his specific views on various areas of modern science.

The contributors focus especially upon his final text, History as a Science and the System of the Sciences. They view this as the culmination and summary of his historical and phenomenological investigations into the foundations, nature, and limits of modern sciences. This includes not just history but the Geisteswissenschaften more generally, along with the social and natural sciences as well. The essays in this volume reflect that range.

This volume presents insightful discussions about the nature and legitimacy of the human sciences as sciences and the unique character ofthe social sciences. It will be of interest not just as a matter of historical scholarship, but also and above all as an important contribution to phenomenology and to the philosophy of science and the sciences as such. It deserves attention by scholars from any philosophical tradition interested in thinking about the foundations of their disciplines and a philosophy of science that includes, but is not limited to, the natural sciences.

Thomas Nenon (PhD, University of Freiburg) is Professor of Philosophy and Provost at the University of Memphis. He previously worked as an editor at the Husserl-Archives and instructor at the University of Freiburg before coming to University of Memphis. His teaching and research interests include Husserl, Heidegger, Kant and German Idealism, Hermeneutics, and the philosophy of the social sciences. He has served as review editor for Husserl Studies, as a member of the Executive Committee of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, as Director of the Center for the Humanities, and is President of the Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology. His current research interests include Husserl's theories of personhood and subjectivity and Kant and Hegel's practical philosophy.