IDS 315 Religions and Social Theory of 19th Century Europe

By the mid-19th century in Germany, there arose a sharp distinction between the methodology of the natural sciences and the human sciences. The human sciences maintained that they could not take their cue from the natural sciences which searched for general laws to explain phenomena. Rather, the human sciences wished to grasp the individual and unique features of sociocultural and historical phenomena. However, by what method does one come to interpret human action? Notable German scholars presented the method of inner human understanding (Verstehen). Hence, the purpose of this course will be to unfold the method of inner human understanding in the context of theology, language, history, philology, human sciences, phenomenology, existentialism, and anthropology. This course is also offered as an elective for the philosophy and religion major and an interdisciplinary studies sociology concentration. 3 hour(s).