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Emotions in Europe, 1517-1914: Volume I: Reformations,1517-1602
by Katie Barclay; François SoyerThis volume of primary sources focuses on the history of emotions in Europe and its empires between 1517 and 1602. The Reformation in 1517 was a key transformative moment in European history that required people to rethink the self, belief, and scientific knowledges – all of which shaped and were shaped by emotion. The study examines the subjects of the self, family and community, religion, politics and law, science and philosophy, and art and culture. Sources include letters, diaries, legal papers, institutional records, newspapers, science and philosophical writings, literature and art from a diversity of voices and perspectives. Accompanied by extensive editorial commentary, this collection will be of great interest to students of history and literature.
Emotions in Europe, 1517-1914: Volume III: Revolutions, 1714-1789
by Katie Barclay; François SoyerThis volume of primary sources focuses on the history of emotions in Europe and its empires between 1714 and 1789. The study examines the subjects of the self, family and community, religion, politics and law, science and philosophy, and art and culture. Sources include letters, diaries, legal papers, institutional records, newspapers, science and philosophical writings, literature and art from a diversity of voices and perspectives. Accompanied by extensive editorial commentary, this collection will be of great interest to students of history and literature.
Emotions in Europe, 1517-1914: Volume II: Explorations, 1602-1714
by Katie Barclay; François SoyerThis volume of primary sources focuses on the history of emotions in Europe and its empires between 1602 and 1714. The study examines the subjects of the self, family and community, religion, politics and law, science and philosophy, and art and culture. Sources include letters, diaries, legal papers, institutional records, newspapers, science and philosophical writings, literature and art from a diversity of voices and perspectives. Accompanied by extensive editorial commentary, this collection will be of great interest to students of history and literature.
Emotions in Indian Thought-Systems
by Purushottama Bilimoria; Aleksandra WentaA stimulating account of the wide range of approaches towards conceptualising emotions in classical Indian philosophical–religious traditions, such as those of the Upanishads, Vaishnava Tantrism, Bhakti movement, Jainism, Buddhism, Yoga, Shaivism, and aesthetics, this volume analyses the definition and validity of emotions in the construction of
Emotions in Korean Philosophy and Religion: Confucian, Comparative, and Contemporary Perspectives (Palgrave Studies in Comparative East-West Philosophy)
by Edward Y. J. Chung Jea Sophia OhThis pioneering book presents thirteen articles on the fascinating topic of emotions (jeong 情) in Korean philosophy and religion. Its introductory chapter comprehensively provides a textual, philosophical, ethical, and religious background on this topic in terms of emotions West and East, emotions in the Chinese and Buddhist traditions, and Korean perspectives. Chapters 2 to 5 of part I discuss key Korean Confucian thinkers, debates, and ideas. Chapters 6 to 8 of part II offer comparative thoughts from Confucian moral, political, and social angles. Chapters 9 to 12 of part III deal with contemporary Buddhist and eco-feminist perspectives. The concluding chapter discusses ground-breaking insights into the diversity, dynamics, and distinctiveness of Korean emotions.This is an open access book.
Emotions in Late Modernity (Routledge Studies in the Sociology of Emotions)
by Alberto Bellocchi Roger Patulny Sukhmani Khorana Jordan McKenzie Michelle Peterie Rebecca E. OlsonThis international collection discusses how the individualised, reflexive, late modern era has changed the way we experience and act on our emotions. Divided into four sections that include studies ranging across multiple continents and centuries, Emotions in Late Modernity does the following: Demonstrates an increased awareness and experience of emotional complexity in late modernity by challenging the legal emotional/rational divide; positive/negative concepts of emotional valence; sociological/ philosophical/psychological divisions around emotion, morality and gender; and traditional understandings of love and loneliness. Reveals tension between collectivised and individualised-privatised emotions in investigating ‘emotional sharing’ and individualised responsibility for anger crimes in courtrooms; and the generation of emotional energy and achievement emotions in classrooms. Debates the increasing mediation of emotions by contrasting their historical mediation (through texts and bodies) with contemporary digital mediation of emotions in classroom teaching, collective mobilisations (e.g. riots) and film and documentary representations. Demonstrates reflexive micro and macro management of emotions, with examinations of the ‘politics of fear’ around asylum seeking and religious subjects, and collective commitment to climate change mitigation. The first collection to investigate the changing nature of emotional experience in contemporary times, Emotions in Late Modernity will appeal to students and researchers interested in fields such as sociology of emotions, cultural studies, political science and psychology.
Emotions in Rituals and Performances: South Asian and European Perspectives on Rituals and Performativity
by Axel Michaels; Christoph WulfChallenging the idea that rituals are static and emotions irrational, the volume explores the manifold qualities of emotions in ritual practices. Focusing explicitly on the relationship between emotions and rituals, it poses two central questions. First, how and to what extent do emotions shape rituals? Second, in what way are emotions ritualized in and beyond rituals? Strong emotions are generally considered to be more spontaneous and uncontrolled, whereas ritual behaviour is regarded as planned, formalized and stereotyped, and hence less emotional. However, as the volume demonstrates, rituals often reveal strong emotions among participants, are motivated by feelings, or are intended to generate them. The essays discuss the motivation for rituals; the healing function of emotions; the creation of new emotions through new media; the aspect of mimesis in the generation of feelings; individual, collective, and non-human emotions; the importance of trance and possession; staged emotions and emotions on stage; emotions in the context of martyrdom; emotions in Indian and Western dance traditions; emotions of love, sorrow, fear, aggression, and devotion. Furthermore, aesthetic and sensory dimensions, as well as emic concepts, of emotions in rituals are underscored as relevant in understanding social practice.
Emotions in Social Life: Critical Themes and Contemporary Issues
by Gillian Bendelow Simon J. WilliamsThe development of a sociology of emotions is crucial to our understanding of social life as they hold the key to our understanding of social processes and sociological investigation. First published in 1997, Emotions in Social Life consolidates the sociology of emotions as a legitimate and viable field of enquiry. It provides a comprehensive assessment of the sociology of emotions using work from scholars of international stature, as well as newer writers in the field. It presents new empirical research in conjunction with innovative and challenging theoretical material, and will be essential reading for students of sociology, health psychology, anthropology and gender studies.
Emotions in the Field: The Psychology and Anthropology of Fieldwork Experience
by James Davies Dimitrina SpencerBecause of the perceived link between emotion and irrationality, field researchers often underreport emotions that they experience while doing their work, even though their denial of emotion doesn't necessarily improve their research. In this book of essays, contributors explore the idea that emotion is an untapped source of insight that can complement traditional methods of research, and show how certain reactions and experiences consistently evoked in fieldwork can be translated into meaningful data when treated with intellectual rigor. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
Emotions in Transmigration
by Ann Brooks Ruth SimpsonThe book explores the intersection of emotions and migration in a number of case studies from across the USA, Europe and Southeast Asia, including the transmigration of female domestic workers, transmigrant marriages, transmigrant workers in the entertainment industry and asylum seekers and refugees who are the victims of domestic violence.
Emotions Matter
by Alan Hunt Dale Spencer Kevin WalbyThe sociology of emotions has recently undergone a renaissance, raising new questions for the social sciences: How should we define and study emotions? How are emotions related to perennial sociological debates about structure, power, and agency? Emotions Matter brings together leading international scholars to build on and extend sociological understandings of emotions.Moving beyond reductionist approaches that frame emotions as idiosyncratic states of mind, the scholars in this collection conceptualize emotions as the experience of social relations. Empirical and theoretical chapters demonstrate how emotions relate to sociological theories of interaction, the body, gender, and communication. Pushing the boundaries of sociology and stimulating debate for related fields, Emotions Matter offers diverse relational approaches that illustrate the crucial importance of emotions to the sociological imagination.
Emotions, Metacognition, and the Intuition of Language Normativity: Theoretical, Epistemological, and Historical Perspectives on Linguistic Feeling
by David Romand Michel Le DuThis book proposes a comprehensive discussion of the issue of linguistic feeling, the subject’s metalinguistic capacity to intuitively apprehend the normative – lexical, syntactic, morphological, phonological… – dimensions of a definite language he or she is acquainted with. The volume’s twelve contributions aim to revisit a concept that, through a fluctuating terminology (“Sprachgefühl,” “sentiment de la langue,” “linguistic intuitions,” etc.), had developed, since the late 18th century, within a variety of cultural contexts and research traditions, and whose theoretical, epistemological, and historical ins and outs had not been systematically explored so far. Beginning with a long opening chapter, the book consists of two parts, one tracing the multifaceted approaches to linguistic feeling from Herder to Wittgenstein, and one offering a representative overview of the debates about the issue at stake in current linguistics and philosophy, while addressing the question of the place of metacognition, normativity, and affectivity in language processes.
Emotions, Mobilisations and South Asian Politics (Exploring the Political in South Asia)
by Amélie Blom Stéphanie Tawa Lama-RewalThis book highlights the role of emotions in the contentious politics of modern South Asia. It brings new methodological, theoretical and empirical insights to the mutual constitution of emotions and mobilisations in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. As such, it addresses three distinct but related questions: what do emotions do to mobilisations? What do mobilisations do to emotions? Further, what does studying emotions in mobilisations reveal about the political culture of protest in South Asia? The chapters in this volume emphasise that emotions are significant in politics because they have the power to mobilise. They explore a variety of emotions including anger, resentment, humiliation, hurt, despair, and nostalgia, and also enchantment, humour, pleasure, hope and enthusiasm. The interdisciplinary research presented here shows that integrating emotions improves our understanding of South Asian politics while, conversely, focusing on South Asia helps retool current thinking on the emotional dynamics of political mobilisations. The book offers contextual analyses of how emotions are publicly represented, expressed and felt, thus shedding light on the complex nature of protests, power relations, identity politics, and the political culture of South Asia. This cutting-edge research volume intersects South Asian studies, emotion studies and social movement studies, and will greatly interest scholars and students of political science, anthropology, sociology, history and cultural studies, and the informed general reader interested in South Asian politics.
Emotions, Politics and War (Interventions)
by Linda Åhäll Thomas GregoryA growing number of scholars have sought to re-centre emotions in our study of international politics, however an overarching book on how emotions matter to the study of politics and war is yet to be published. This volume is aimed at filling that gap, proceeding from the assumption that a nuanced understanding of emotions can only enhance our engagement with contemporary conflict and war. Providing a range of perspectives from a diversity of methodological approaches on the conditions, maintenance and interpretation of emotions, the contributors interrogate the multiple ways in which emotions function and matter to the study of global politics. Accordingly, the innovative contribution of this volume is its specific engagement with the role of emotions and constitution of emotional subjects in a range of different contexts of politics and war, including the gendered nature of war and security; war traumas; post-conflict reconstruction; and counterinsurgency operations. Looking at how we analyse emotions in war, why it matters, and what emotions do in global politics, this volume will be of interest to students and scholars of critical security studies and international relations alike.
Emotions through Literature: Fictional Narratives, Society and the Emotional Self (Classical and Contemporary Social Theory)
by Mariano LongoEngaging with the wide sociological literature on emotions, this book explores the social representation of emotions, their management and their effects by making reference to creative sources. With a specific focus on literary narrative, including the works of figures such as Dante, Austen, Manzoni, Tolstoy and Kundera, the author draws out the capacity of literary works to describe and represent both the external aspects of social relations and the inner motivations of the involved actors. An interdisciplinary study that combines sociology, narratology, philosophy, historical analysis and literary criticism, Emotions through Literature invites us to re-think the role of emotions in sociological analysis, employing literary narratives to give plausible intellectual responses to the double nature of emotions, their being both individual and social.
Empathetic Memorials: The Other Designs for the Berlin Holocaust Memorial (Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies)
by Mark CallaghanThis book is a study of the Berlin Holocaust Memorial Competitions of the 1990s, with a focus on designs that kindle empathetic responses. Through analysis of provocative designs, the book engages with issues of empathy, secondary witnessing, and depictions of concentration camp iconography. It explores the relationship between empathy and cultural memory when representations of suffering are notably absent. The book submits that one design represents the idea of an uncanny memorial, and also pays attention to viewer co-authorship in counter-monuments. Analysis of counter-monuments also include their creative engagement with German history and their determination to defy fascist aesthetics. As the winning design for The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is abstract with an information centre, there is an exploration of the memorial museum. Callaghan asks whether this configuration is intended to compensate for the abstract memorial’s ambiguity or to complement the design’s visceral potential. Other debates explored concern political memory, national memory, and the controversy of dedicating the memorial exclusively to murdered Jews.
The Empathic City: An Urban Health and Wellbeing Perspective (S.M.A.R.T. Environments)
by Nimish Biloria Giselle Sebag Hamish RobertsonThis book has a primary focus on inclusions for solutions to problems and not just more on the nature of the current and emerging problems that most other competing titles present. The book is also a true global representation of challenges and opportunities that have been encountered, addressed, and critiqued from a wide variety of contributors rather than academicians per se. In doing so, rather than focusing on techno-centric prowess and associated case studies of the west (as is the case in most competing titles), the book also equally emphasizes upon the vulnerabilities and mitigating solutions being developed and tested in the under-developed and developing nations. Besides this, the book also acquires an ‘Equity’ oriented focus and hints upon sustainable, inclusive modes of shaping our built environment throughout the contributing chapters. The book is also unique in the way it combines the chosen themes to provide a holistic coverage of the broader determinants of urban health and wellbeing, thus being better positioned to address SDG3 within one compact volume. The book also differs from a typical conference proceeding or a non-peer reviewed book since the book’s highly theme specific approach is curated by a scientific peer review committee to carefully maintain diversity of contributions to the book. Cities have a profound power to support or hinder human health and wellbeing in countless ways. Achieving greater health equity has emerged in recent years as a key priority and consideration when designing cities to promote health and wellbeing, although there is a dearth of evidence and practical examples of research translation to guide cities and communities. The book accordingly exemplifies a pluralistic approach to achieving urban health equity which recognises and addresses critical aspects of geography, age, race, background, socioeconomic status, disability, gender etc. With interdisciplinary science clearly pointing to the role of the neighbourhood environment as one of the most important health determinants, this book will undoubtedly lead the next generation of urban health actors to build contextually responsive, equitable, empathic cities to benefit residents around the world. The book, rather than being focused purely on academic propositions for building equitable cities, offers a unique multi-stakeholder perspective by collaborating with the International Society for Urban Health’s 18th International Conference on Urban Health. This unique collaboration allows access to hundreds of scientists, architects, urbanists, multilaterals, policymakers, non-profit leaders, and grassroots organizers. The book captures the voices and concerns of such diverse cross-sectoral professionals and showcases findings that turn evidence into action and impact in communities around the world.Chapter 14 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis
by Jeremy Rifkin"One of the leading big-picture thinkers of our day" (Utne Reader) delivers his boldest work in this erudite, tough-minded, and far-reaching manifesto. Never has the world seemed so completely united-in the form of communication, commerce, and culture-and so savagely torn apart-in the form of war, financial meltdown, global warming, and even the migration of diseases. No matter how much we put our minds to the task of meeting the challenges of a rapidly globalizing world, the human race seems to continually come up short, unable to muster the collective mental resources to truly "think globally and act locally." In his most ambitious book to date, bestselling social critic Jeremy Rifkin shows that this disconnect between our vision for the world and our ability to realize that vision lies in the current state of human consciousness. The very way our brains are structured disposes us to a way of feeling, thinking, and acting in the world that is no longer entirely relevant to the new environments we have created for ourselves. The human-made environment is rapidly morphing into a global space, yet our existing modes of consciousness are structured for earlier eras of history, which are just as quickly fading away. Humanity, Rifkin argues, finds itself on the cusp of its greatest experiment to date: refashioning human consciousness so that human beings can mutually live and flourish in the new globalizing society. In essence, this shift in consciousness is based upon reaching out to others. But to resist this change in human relations and modes of thinking, Rifkin contends, would spell ineptness and disaster in facing the new challenges around us. As the forces of globalization accelerate, deepen, and become ever more complex, the older faith-based and rational forms of consciousness are likely to become stressed, and even dangerous, as they attempt to navigate a world increasingly beyond their reach and control. Indeed, the emergence of this empathetic consciousness has implications for the future that will likely be as profound and far-reaching as when Enlightenment philosophers upended faith-based consciousness with the canon of reason.
The Empathic Civilization
by Jeremy RifkinIn this sweeping new interpretation of the history of civilization, bestselling author Jeremy Rifkin looks at the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development-and is likely to determine our fate as a species. Today we face unparalleled challenges in an energy-intensive and interconnected world that will demand an unprecedented level of mutual understanding among diverse peoples and nations. Do we have the capacity and collective will to come together in a way that will enable us to cope with the great challenges of our time? In this remarkable book Jeremy Rifkin tells the dramatic story of the extension of human empathy from the rise of the first great theological civilizations, to the ideological age that dominated the 18th and 19th centuries, the psychological era that characterized much of the 20th century and the emerging dramaturgical period of the 21st century. The result is a new social tapestry-The Empathic Civilization-woven from a wide range of fields. Rifkin argues that at the very core of the human story is the paradoxical relationship between empathy and entropy. At various times in history new energy regimes have converged with new communication revolutions, creating ever more complex societies that heightened empathic sensitivity and expanded human consciousness. But these increasingly complicated milieus require extensive energy use and speed us toward resource depletion. The irony is that our growing empathic awareness has been made possible by an ever-greater consumption of the Earth's resources, resulting in a dramatic deterioration of the health of the planet. If we are to avert a catastrophic destruction of the Earth's ecosystems, the collapse of the global economy and the possible extinction of the human race, we will need to change human consciousness itself-and in less than a generation. Rifkin challenges us to address what may be the most important question facing humanity today: Can we achieve global empathy in time to avoid the collapse of civilization and save the planet? One of the most popular social thinkers of our time, Jeremy Rifkin is the bestselling author of The European Dream, The Hydrogen Economy¸ The End of Work, The Biotech Century, and The Age of Access. He is the president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D. C.
Empathie und Parteilichkeit gegenüber fiktionalen Figuren in Videospielen: Eine Analyse von narrativen Strategien am Beispiel von “The Last of Us Part II” (BestMasters)
by Anja SegschneiderWie entstehen Empathie und Parteilichkeit in interaktiven Medien? Ausgehend von der These, dass interaktive Medien wie Videospiele eher dazu in der Lage sind, Empathie und Parteilichkeit zu erzeugen als lineare Medien, geht die Arbeit dieser Frage nach. Als Beispiel dient das populäre Survival-Horror-Spiel „The Last of Us Part II“ aus dem Jahr 2020. Das theoretische Fundament bilden bestehende Theorien aus Film- und Medienwissenschaft sowie der Psychologie, die auf das interaktive Medium übertragen und angepasst werden. Ein Fokus liegt auf narrativen und ludonarrativen Strategien. Dabei schlägt die Arbeit auch einen Bogen zu gesamtgesellschaftlichen Trends in den Medien und analysiert, inwiefern die Strategien für Parteilichkeit und Empathie in interaktiven Medien einen nachhaltigen Einfluss in der realen Welt entfalten können.
Empathy: The Contribution of Neuroscience to Social Analysis
by Vincenzo AuriemmaThis book examines the concept of empathy in sociological and neuroscientific discourses using innovative perspectives from sociology and social neuroscience. Through a transdisciplinary approach, the author delves into the history of empathy and its social, cultural and semantic changes, and then reviews the conception of empathy in neuroscientific discourse.Distancing itself from the traditional neuroscientific literature of biological universalism, this volume offers an innovative perspective on empathy. It also opens a new avenue for neurosociology, which is presented as the discipline that can emphasize all the cultural and emotional aspects that govern empathy. Key themes addressed in the text are: empathy in all its meanings, from Hume to TenHouten; neurosociology as one possible avenue for embracing the cultural and neuroscientific aspects of empathy; and empirical research. A valuable resource for sociology students and academics in the field of empathy and neurosociology, this book is also of interest to those studying sociological thought, and social neuroscience.
Empathy: A Social Psychological Approach
by Mark H DavisEmpathy has long been a topic of interest to psychologists, but it has been studied in a sometimes bewildering number of ways. In this volume, Mark Davis offers a thorough, evenhanded review of contemporary empathy research, especially work that has been carried out by social and personality psychologists.Davis' approach is explicitly multidimensional. He draws careful distinctions between situational and dispositional “antecedents” of empathy, cognitive and noncognitive “internal processes,” affective and nonaffective “intrapersonal outcomes,” and the “interpersonal behavioral outcomes” that follow. Davis presents a novel organizational model to help classify and interpret previous findings. This book will be of value in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on altruism, helping, and moral development.
Empathy: Turning Compassion into Action
by David JohnstonThe 28th Governor General's most personal and timely book to date: a passionate and practical guide for turning empathy into action.As the world stumbles through the most severe pandemic of the last century, threatened by teetering economies, torn by political division, separated by unequal access to resources, and wrestling with issues as diverse as racism, gender, cybercrime, and climate change, the nations that best adapt and prosper are those in which empathy is fully alive and widely active. Written for a post-pandemic world, Empathy is a book about learning to be empathetic and then turning that empathy into action. Based on the personal experiences of author David Johnston, the book explores how awakening to the transformative power of listening and caring permanently changes individuals, families, communities, and nations. A how-to manual for a world craving kindness, Empathy offers proof of the inherent goodness of people, and shows how exercising the instinct for kindness creates societies that are both smart and caring. Through poignant stories and crisp observations, David contends that &“Everyone has power over some things that other people don&’t. When they learn ways to turn that power into action, they change the future dramatically.&” With clear and practical focus, Empathy looks at a host of issues that demand our attention, from education and immigration, to healthcare, the law, policing, business ethics, and criminal justice. In each of these areas, Johnston highlights the deeper understandings that have arisen during the COVID-19 crisis, with sharp emphasis on the positive and negative lessons now in crisp focus. Convinced that empathy is the fastest route to peace and progress in all their forms, David ends each short chapter with a set of practical steps the reader can take to make the world better, one deliberate action at a time.
Empathy: A History
by Susan LanzoniA surprising, sweeping, and deeply researched history of empathy—from late-nineteenth-century German aesthetics to mirror neurons†‹Empathy: A History tells the fascinating and largely unknown story of the first appearance of “empathy” in 1908 and tracks its shifting meanings over the following century. Despite empathy’s ubiquity today, few realize that it began as a translation of Einfühlung or “in-feeling” in German psychological aesthetics that described how spectators projected their own feelings and movements into objects of art and nature. Remarkably, this early conception of empathy transformed into its opposite over the ensuing decades. Social scientists and clinical psychologists refashioned empathy to require the deliberate putting aside of one’s feelings to more accurately understand another’s. By the end of World War II, interpersonal empathy entered the mainstream, appearing in advice columns, popular radio and TV, and later in public forums on civil rights. Even as neuroscientists continue to map the brain correlates of empathy, its many dimensions still elude strict scientific description. This meticulously researched book uncovers empathy’s historical layers, offering a rich portrait of the tension between the reach of one’s own imagination and the realities of others’ experiences.
Empathy And Agency: The Problem Of Understanding In The Human Sciences (Bradford Books)
by Hans Herbert KoglerA crucial debate currently raging in the fields of cognitive and social science centers around general and specific approaches to understanding the actions of others. When we understand the actions of another person, do we do so on the basis of a general theory of psychology, or on the basis of an effort to place ourselves in the particular position of that specific person? Hans Kgler and Karsten Stuebers Empathy and Agency addresses this and other issues vital to current social science, in an advanced and diverse analysis of the foundations of social-scientific methodology based on recent cognitive psychology. The book serves as both an introduction to the debate for non-academic audiences and as a catalyst for further discussion for serious theorists. Empathy and Agency provides a solid foundation of the fundamental issues in social and cognitive science, but also presents the most influential paradigms in the field at this time. How do we, as interpreters and theorists in the human and social sciences, understand agency? What are the methods, models, and mediating theoretical frameworks that allow us to give a reliable and adequate account of beliefs, actions, and cultural practices? More specifically, how can we as interpretive analysts employ our own cognitive capacities so as to render the beliefs, intentions, and actions of other human beings intelligible? These are the leading questions that a group of well-established social philosophers explore in this volume in light of the most recent (and hotly debated) findings in cognitive science, developmental psychology, and philosophy of mind. In particular, the debate concerning simulation -- whether agents interpret others by means of implicit theoretical assumptions, or whether they rather simulate their behavior by putting themselves in their shoes -- has produced a wide set of important empirical and philosophical insights. This book takes up those insights and discusses their impact in the context of their most important paradigms in social methodology today.A systematic introduction pertaining to the understanding-explanation debate sets the stage, followed by eleven chapters representing the different approaches tot he field. The paradigms include Wittgensteinian, Davidsonian and Diltheyan approaches, hermeneutics and critical theory, game theory, naturalized epistemology, philosophy of history and twentieth-century social theory, as well as simulation approach proper. As stake are the relation between everyday and social-scientific interpretation, the role of empathy (or role-taking) in understanding human agency, the implications of attributing rationality in the course of interpretation, as well as the relation between rational and causal models in social explanation. The discussions cut across well-established disciplinary boundaries so that the book appeals to both analytic and hermeneutic traditions within philosophy. In addition, the book speaks to all who are engaged in interpreting or explaining human agency in the cultural and social sciences.