Review by Choice Review
Two main issues link the essays collected in this text. The first dates from the 19th century and is resurrected as a contemporary issue still to be determined, namely, whether there is an autonomy of method that is justifiable for the humanities as distinct from the sciences. The second issue shadows contemporary French and American thought; it concerns framing textual interpretation through use of the term "undecidability." The authors set up a German version of the debates over these issues from Gadamer (representing autonomy and the undecidability of interpretations) through Stegmuller (no autonomy because undecidability characterizes both areas of inquiry) to Specht (suggesting both positions for both fields). Each author offers a good introductory summary of the text and of these themes as a whole but leaves unaddressed the question of the relation of their sense of "undecidability" to that technical sense introduced by Paul de Man. Nonetheless, they offer a provocative and resourceful text useful for graduate students and advanced readers unfamiliar with these traditional hermeneutical debates. I. E. Harvey Pennsylvania State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
