Ideas for a Hermeneutic Phenomenology of the Natural Sciences

I have always had a great interest in the philosophy of science. At first this interest led to reflections on the mathematical sciences;l later my focus shifted to the natural sciences;2 during the past twenty years or so my interest has also included the behavioral, social, and historical sciences) From the very start my interest was always combined with a concern for the history of the sciences. In philosophy of science proper, my main interest was not in logical, methodological, or even epistemological issues, although I obviously studied and taught the most important insights proposed in the leading publications in this large field of study. My concern has always been predominantly ontological; and in that area I have approached the relevant issues from a 4 phenomenological perspective. For what follows it is perhaps of some importance to mention here that I came to phenomenology in a rather indirect way, through the philosophy of Nicolai Hartmann. Yet it was mainly the influence of Herman Van Breda and Alphonse De Waelhens which led me directly to Husserl's phenomenology. At first I fo cused almost exclusively on Husserl's phenomenology. Later I moved in the direction of the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty and, 1Cf. Joseph J. Kockelmans, Philosophy of Mathematics in the Middle Ages (in Dutch) (Langemark: Vonksteen, 1953); "On the Mode of Being of Mathematical Entities" (in Dutch), in Tijdschrift voor Philosophie, 16(1954), pp. 289-33l. 2Joseph J. Kockelmans, On Time and Space.

Résumé
Presents the basic ontological issues that must be raised with respect to the meaning and function of natural science. This title discusses the ontological issues from a hermeneutico-phenomenological point of view.

Contenu
1: Notes on the History of the Philosophy of Science.- §1. Kant and the Kantian Tradition.- §2. The Empiricist Tradition Since Herschel and Mill.- §3. On the Origin of Conventionalism.- §4. Leading Schools and Trends in Philosophy of Science Today.- §5. Philosophy of Science: The Place of Hermeneutic Phenomenology.- 2: Hermeneutic Phenomenology on the Meaning and Function of Philosophy.- §1. Philosophy as a Critical Reflection on the Meaning of Being Which Takes its Starting Point in an Analytic of Man's Mode of Being.- §2. The Historical Character of Philosophy.- §3. Philosophy as Critical Reflection on Man's Experiences.- §4. Concluding Remarks.- 3: Basic Issues for an Ontology of the Natural Sciences.- §1. On the Hermeneutic Dimensions of the Natural Sciences.- §2. On the Problem of Truth in the Sciences.- §3. On Myth and Science. Some Hermeneutical Reflections.- 4: Critical Discussion of Some Basic Issues Raised in the Logic, Epistemology, History, and Ontology of the Natural Sciences.- §1. On Stegmüller's Critical Analysis of the Logico- Empiricist Debate About the Relationship Between Theory and Experience.- §2. On Induction: Popper and Hempel.- §3. On the Meaning of Scientific Revolutions.- §4. Reflections on Lakatos' Methodology of Scientific Research Programs.- §5. Hübner on the Nature of the Theories Developed in Physics.- §6. Beyond Realism and Idealism. A Response to Patrick Heelan.- 5: Toward a Hermeneutic Theory of the History of the Natural Sciences.- §1. Three Views on the Historicity of the History of Science.- §2. Critical Reflections.- Index of Names.- Index of Terms.