Description
Book SynopsisHow can we interpret and compare different cultures? Gathering insights from an array of anthropologists, archaeologists, and philosophers and applying them to case studies in the United States, this title develops a practical model of culture and method of interpretation that are built around the concept of "constructing constellations".
Trade ReviewInterpreting Cultures provides readers with . . . [an] often provocative reading of Adorno and Benjamin, and it bridges philosophical, sociological, and ethnographic literatures in a novel way. The text carefully moderates contemporary debates by articulating a model of social theory that insists on a context-sensitive vision of truth. . . . Lewandowski . . . insists that social analysis must remain situated, in dialogue with the material reality it seeks to interpret, and capable of producing change. These core tenets of the book prove potent, and thus students and scholars working in these fields would prove unwise to ignore ‘the logic of constructing constellations’.”—
Cultural Critique"Lewandowski's
Interpreting Culture is a highly original and signal contribution to debates about interpretation and culture in the philosophy of the social sciences. With its rich discussions of urban sociology, race, and other examples from the social sciences, this book should inform and challenge philosophers and social scientists alike."—James Bohman, author of
New Philosophy of Social ScienceTable of ContentsContents - List of Illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1. The Contemporary Logics of Social Theory; 1. Textuality and Deconstruction; 2. Rationality and Reconstruction; 3. Constructing Constellations; Chapter 2. Method and Truth amid the Ruins of the Social; 1. Image-Construction and the Problem of Truth; 2. Adorno's Critique and Appropriation of Benjamin; 3. Interpretive Philosophy as Constructing Constellations; Chapter 3. Affect and Evidence in the Logic of Constructing Constellations; 1. Adorno's Kierkegaard Study; 2. Truth as Truth Bearers; 3. Sociological Interpretation and Disenchantment; Chapter 4. Method and Truth in French Social Theory; 1. Archaeology and Genealogy; 2. Reflexive Sociology; Chapter 5. Constructing Urban Constellations; 1. Ghetto Life in America; 2. Social Struggle in Chicago; Afterword - Constructing Constellations, or Thematizing Embeddedness; Notes; Bibliography; Index
