The Ubiquity of Understanding: Dimensions of Understanding in the Social and Natural Sciences

Taking my departure from the discussion of the concept of understanding in contemporary epistemology, I will suggest that we need to fine-tune the concept of explanatory understanding in order to comprehensively describe the epistemic endeavors of the natural and social sciences. I will distinguish among the theoretical, narrative, and empathic modes of understanding. None of the sciences are exclusively characterized by one of these modes of understanding. Nevertheless, I will suggest that only the human sciences are characterized by a complex interplay of all three modes. Finally, I will argue that we can account for the explanatory autonomy of rational action explanations in light of this complex interplay