Methodology for the Human Sciences

Donald E. Polkinghorne is Emeritus Professor and Chair of Counseling Psychology at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences and Practice and the Human Sciences: The Case for a Judgment-Based Practice of Care, both also published by SUNY Press.

• List of IllustrationsPrefaceIntroduction 1. The Original Debate PositivismThe Anti-Positivist ResponseThe Recurring DebateSummary 2. The Received View of Science The First Phase: The Vienna CircleThe Second Phase: Theoretical NetworksThe Human Sciences and the Deductive System of Inquiry 3. Pragmatic Science The Third Phase: Criticism of the Received ViewThe Fourth Phase: Sciences as Expressions of Various World OutlooksThe Fifth Phase: Historical Realism 4. Systems and Structures SystemsStructuralism and Human SystemsSystems Inquiry and Methodology 5. Human Action The Nature of Human ActionExplanations and Accounts of Human Action: Causal ExplanationsExplanations and Accounts of Human Action: Acausal ExplanationsExplanations and Accounts of Human Action: Linguistic Accounts Practical Reasoning 6. Existential-Phenomenological and Hermeneutic Systems The Existential-Phenomenological System of InquiryHermeneutics (Interpretation)Interpretation and the Human Sciences 7. Human Science Research The Nature of KnowledgeUse of Linguistic DataConcluding Remarks Appendix: The Term "Human Science"NotesBibliographyIndex