Concept
Verstehen
Overview
Verstehen (German pronunciation: [fɛɐˈʃteːən] , lit. transl. "to understand"), in the context of German philosophy and social sciences in general, has been used since the late 19th century – in English as in German – with the particular sense of the "interpretive or participatory" examination of social phenomena. The term is closely associated with the work of the German sociologist Max Weber, whose antipositivism established an alternative to prior sociological positivism and economic determinism, rooted in the analysis of social action. In anthropology, Verstehen has come to mean a systematic interpretive process in which an outside observer of a culture attempts to relate to it and understand others.
Verstehen is now seen as a concept and a method central to a rejection of positivist social science (although Weber appeared to think that the two could be united). Verstehen refers to understanding the meaning of action from the actor's point of view. It is entering into the shoes of the other, and adopting this research stance requires treating the actor as a subject, rather than an object of your observations. It also implies that unlike objects in the natural world human actors are not simply the product of the pulls and pushes of external forces. Individuals are seen to create the world by organizing their own understanding of it and giving it meaning. To do research on actors without taking into account the meanings they attribute to their actions or environment is to treat them like objects.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
And, since we are concerned with what is called "thought," we must pay more attention than we otherwise should do to the private as opposed to the social use of language. Language profoundly affects our thoughts, and it is this aspect of language that is of most importance to us in our present inquiry. We are almost more concerned with the internal speech that is never uttered than we are with the things said out…
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
States what Verstehen is.
1. Jesus Christus unser Heiland, Der den Tod ueberwand, Ist auferstanden, Die Suend' hat er gefangen. Kyrie eleison! 2. Der ohn' Suenden war gebor'n, Trug fuer uns Gottes Zorn, Hat uns versoehnet, Dass Gott uns sein' Huld goenner. Kyrie eleison! 3. Tod, Suend', Leben und Genad, All's in Haenden er hat, Er kann erretten Alle, die zu ihm treten. Kyrie eleison! XII. Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott. Come, Holy Spirit…
Martin Luther, Dr. Martin Luther's Deutsche Geistliche Lieder
Opens on Verstehen; names Verstehen.
*** _(c)_ If we abandon the idea of the acting _subject,_ we also abandon the _object_ acted upon. Duration, equality to self, Being, are inherent neither in what is called subject, nor in what is called object: they are complex phenomena, and in regard to other phenomena are apparently durable--they are distinguishable, for instance, by the different tempo with which they happen (repose--movement, fixed --loose…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Will to Power
States what Verstehen is.
Philosophers who discussed Verstehen
Related ideas
- Georg Simmel
- Princeton University Press
- Hans-Georg Gadamer
- Antipositivism
- Jürgen Habermas
- Social action
- Karl-Otto Apel
- Sociology
- Max Weber
- Ontology
- Social science
- Lifeworld
- Positivism
- Structural functionalism
- Anthropologist
- United States
- Martin Heidegger
- Symbol
- Natural science
- Talcott Parsons
- Cultural relativism
- Anthropology
- Mikhail Bakhtin
- Wilhelm Dilthey
Place in the tradition
Part of Italian philosophy.