Ideas for Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Natural Sciences (published
in 1993 as volume 15 of this series) comprised mainly ontological
reflections on the natural sciences. That book explained why the natural
sciences must be considered inherently interpretive in character, and
clarified the conditions under which scientific interpretations are
"legitimate" and may be called "true".
This companion volume focuses on methodological issues. Its first part
elucidates the methodical hermeneutics developed in the 19th century by
Boeckh, Birt, Dilthey, and others. Its second part, through the use of
concrete examples drawn from modern physics as it unfolded from
Copernicus to Maxwell, clarifies and "proves" the main points of the
ontologico-hermeneutical conception of the sciences elaborated in the
earlier volume. It thereby both illuminates the most important problems
confronting an ontologico-phenomenological approach to the natural
sciences and offers an alternative to Kuhn's conception of the
historical development of the natural sciences.