Gadamer - Reason in the Age of Science

Reason in the Age of Science
(Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought)
by Hans-George Gadamer

# Paperback: 216 pages
# Publisher: The MIT Press (September 14, 1983)

"This book will consolidate Gadamer's growing reputation in the English-speaking world. It will serve as an ideal introduction to Gadamer's thought, and to problems of hermeneutics more generally, since the essays included are clear and easy to follow. For those already familiar with Gadamer's philosophy, these essays are equally important because they illustrate themes in the recent development of his ideas. No one who reads this book will any longer suppose that hermeneutics is indifferent to social critique or political practice. I know of no other short work by Gadamer that offers a more succinct yet brilliant demonstration of the contemporary importance of Gadamer's philosophy."
- Anthony Giddens, Kings College, Cambridge

"This collection of probing and lucidly written essays shows Gadamer as the leading Continental philosopher after Heidegger. It is an impassioned defense of practical reason, and of hermeneutics as a mode of practical philosophy, against the twin dangers of scientism and ideological partisanship. In the best humanist tradition Gadamer vindicates philosophical reflection as basic precondition of a life 'worth living.'"
- Fred R. Dallmayr, University of Notre Dame

after reading two reviews above you should be downloading this one! [photo taken at 1993]

Kant's Search for the Supreme Principle of Morality

"The writing is impeccably clear throughout, and given the intricate subject matter, even elegant." Rudiger Bittner, author of What Reason Demands

"...the author joins the discussion of the grounds for a moral theory that has preoccupied philosophers for some time, and advances that discussion significantly further. This is a book that will be required reading for those interested in that topic of Kant's moral theory." Roger Sullivan, Author of Immanuel Kant's Moral Theory and An Introduction to Kant's Ethics

"[Kerstein's] is a very level-headed approach that takes both Kant's texts and those of his commentators and critics seriously... [his] down-to-earth approach would certainly not upset an author who wrote for an 'age of criticism, to which everything must submit.'" Ethics

Book Description
At the core of Kant's ethics lies the claim that if there is a supreme principle of morality, then it is not a utilitarian or Aristotelian perfectionist principle, or even a principle resembling the Ten Commandments. The only viable candidate for the supreme principle of morality is the Categorial Imperative. This book is the most detailed investigation of thie claim. It constructs a new, criterial reading of Kant's derivation of one version of the Categorial Imperative: The Formula of Universal Law. This reading shows this derivation to be far more compelling than contemporary philosophers tend to believe. It also reveals a novel approach to deriving another version of the Categorial Imperative, the Formula of Humanity, a principle widely considered to be the most attractive Kantian candidate for the supreme principle of morality. Lucidly written and dealing with a foundational topic in the history of ethics, this book will be important not just for Kant scholars but for a broad swath of students of philosophy. Samuel Kerstein is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park

a better reading will be JL Nancy's Kategorein of Excess i n "a finite thinking"