Richard J. Bernstein is Vera List Professor, Graduate Faculty, at the New School for Social Research and Chair of the Department of Philosophy. He is the author of numerous books, including these also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press: The Restructuring of Social and Political Theory and Praxis and Action: Contemporary Philosophies of Human Activity.

"A fascinating and timely treatment of the objectivism versus relativism debates occurring in philosophy of science, literary theory, the social sciences, political science, and elsewhere."-Choice "A superb book. It combines two strong qualities rarely seen together: it makes an insightful and extremely valuable contribution to the philosophical issues on a central matter [and] is at the cutting edge of the subject."-Charles Taylor

• PREFACEACKNOWLEDGMENTSPART ONE. BEYOND OBJECTIVISM AND RELATIVISM: AN OVERVIEWObjectivism and RelativismThe Cartesian AnxietyPostempiricist Philosophy and History of ScienceThe Idea of a Social ScienceThe Recovery of the Hermeneutical Dimension of SciencePhilosophic Hermeneutics: A Primordial Mode of BeingHermeneutics and PraxisPolitical Judgment and Practical DiscourseScience, Hermeneutics, and PraxisPART TWO. SCIENCE, RATIONALITY, AND INCOMMENSURABILITYThe Practical Rationality of Theory-ChoiceKuhn and His Critics: The Common GroundThe Development of the Philosophy of ScienceIncommensurability and the Natural SciencesIncommensurability and the Social DisciplinesPART THREE. FROM HERMENEUTICS TO PRAXISThe Cartesian LegacyTruth and the Experience of ArtUnderstanding and PrejudiceThe Hermeneutical CircleTemporal Distance, Effective-Historical Consciousness, and the Fusion of HorizonsApplication: The Rediscovery of the Fundamental Hermeneutical ProblemThe Movement Beyond Philosophic HermeneuticsPhilosophic Hermeneutics and the Cartesian AnxietyPART FOUR. PRAXIS, PRACTICAL DISCOURSE, AND JUDGMENTA Historical InterludePractical Discourse: HabermasRorty's MetacritiqueJudgment: ArendtBeyond Objectivism and Relativism: The Practical TaskNOTESAPPENDIX. A LETTER BY PROFESSOR HANS-GEORG GADAMERBIBLIOGRAPHYSUBJECT INDEXINDEX