Verstehen (German pronunciation:[fɛɐˈʃteːən]ⓘ,lit. transl. "to understand"), in the context of German philosophy andsocial 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.[1] The term is closely associated with the work of the GermansociologistMax Weber, whoseantipositivism established an alternative to priorsociological positivism andeconomic determinism, rooted in the analysis ofsocial action.[2] Inanthropology,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 themeaning 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.[3]
Interpretive sociology (verstehende Soziologie) is the study of society that concentrates on the meanings people associate to their social world.[4] Interpretive sociology strives to show that reality is constructed by people themselves in their daily lives.[4]
Verstehen roughly translates to "meaningful understanding" or "putting yourself in the shoes of others to see things from their perspective." Interpretive sociology differs from positivist sociology in three ways:[4]
Verstehen was introduced into philosophy and thehuman sciences (Geisteswissenschaften) by the Germanhistorist philosopherJohann Gustav Droysen. Droysen first made a distinction between nature and history in terms of the categories of space and time. The method of thenatural sciences (Naturwissenschaften) is explanation (erklären), while that of history is understanding (verstehen).[5][6][7][8]
The concept ofVerstehen was later used by the German philosopherWilhelm Dilthey[9][10] to describe the first-person participatory perspective that agents have on their individual experience as well as their culture, history, and society. In this sense, it is developed in the context of the theory and practice ofinterpretation (as understood in the context ofhermeneutics) and contrasted with the external objectivating third-person perspective ofexplanation (das Erklären) in which human agency, subjectivity, and its products are analyzed as effects of impersonal natural forces in the natural sciences and social structures in sociology.[citation needed]
Twentieth-century philosophers such asMartin Heidegger andHans-Georg Gadamer[11] were critical of what they considered to be the romantic and subjective character ofVerstehen in Dilthey, although both Dilthey and the early Heidegger were interested in the "facticity" and "life-context" of understanding, and sought to universalize it as the way humans exist through language on the basis ofontology.[12][13]Verstehen also played a role inEdmund Husserl andAlfred Schutz's analysis of the "lifeworld."Jürgen Habermas andKarl-Otto Apel further transformed the concept ofVerstehen, reformulating it on the basis of a transcendental-pragmaticphilosophy of language and the theory of communicative action.[citation needed]
Max Weber andGeorg Simmel[14] introduced interpretive understanding (Verstehen) intosociology, where it has come to mean a systematic interpretive process in which an outside observer of a culture (such as ananthropologist orsociologist) relates to an indigenous people or sub-cultural group on their own terms and from their own point of view, rather than interpreting them in terms of the observer's own culture.[15]Verstehen can mean either a kind ofempathic or participatory understanding of social phenomena. In anthropological terms this is sometimes described ascultural relativism, especially by those that have a tendency to argue toward universal ideals. In sociology it is an aspect of the comparative-historical approach, where the context of a society like twelfth century "France" can be potentially better understood (besserverstehen) by the sociologist than it could have been by people living in a village in Burgundy. It relates to how people in life give meaning to the social world around them and how thesocial scientist accesses and evaluates this "first-person perspective." This concept has been both expanded and criticized by later social scientists. Proponents laud this concept as the only means by which researchers from one culture can examine and explain behaviors in another. While the exercise ofVerstehen has been more popular among social scientists inEurope, such as Habermas,Verstehen was introduced into the practice ofsociology in theUnited States byTalcott Parsons, an American sociologist influenced byMax Weber. Parsons used hisstructural functionalism to incorporate this concept into his 1937 work,The Structure of Social Action.[16]
Weber had more specific beliefs than Marx where he put value to understanding and meaning of key elements—not just with intuition or sympathy with the individual but also the product of "systematic and rigorous research". The goal is to identify human actions and interpreting them as observable events leading us to believe that it not only provides for a good explanation for individual actions but also for group interactions. The meaning attached needs to include constraints and limitations and analyze the motivation for action. Weber believed that this gives the sociologist an advantage over a natural scientist because "We can accomplish something which is never attainable in the natural sciences, namely the subjective understanding of the action of the component individuals."[17]
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Critics of the social scientific concept ofVerstehen such asMikhail Bakhtin andDean MacCannell counter that it is simply impossible for a person born of one culture to ever completely understand another culture, and that it is arrogant and conceited to attempt to interpret the significance of one culture'ssymbols through the terms of another (supposedly superior) culture.[citation needed] Just as in physical science all knowledge is asymptotic to the full explanation, a high degree of cross-cultural understanding is very valuable. The opposite ofVerstehen would seem to be ignorance of all but that which is immediately observable, meaning that we would not be able to understand any time and place but our own. A certain level of interpretive understanding is necessary for our own cultural setting, however, and it can easily be argued that even the full participant in a culture does not fully understand it in every regard.[citation needed]
Critics also believe that it is the sociologist's job to not just observe people and what people do but also share in their world of meaning and come to appreciate why they act as they do. Subjective thoughts and feelings regarded as bias in the sciences is an important aspect to be controlled for while doing sociological research.[18]
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