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On the hermeneutic fore-structure of scientific research

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Abstract

The paper provides an overview of the hermeneutic and phenomenological context from which the idea of a “constitutional analysis” of science originated. It analyzes why the approach to “hermeneutic fore-structure of scientific research” requires to transcend the distinction between the context of justification and the context of discovery. By incorporating this approach into an integral “postmetaphysical philosophy of science”, I argue that one can avoid the radical empiricism of recent science studies, while also preventing the analysis of science's discursive practices from collapsing into the frames of radical anti-epistemological critique mandated by some hermeneutic philosophers.

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Ginev, D. On the hermeneutic fore-structure of scientific research. Continental Philosophy Review 32, 143–168 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006966329046

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