Verstehen

From EvaluationWiki

Pronounced, fair-shtay-en. German term referring to the kind of understanding that one has of one's own, and others', reasons for actions, or 'understanding from the inside' as it's sometimes put. Perhaps slightly less affectively loaded, and more cognitive, than 'empathy' the most common suggested translation. Max Weber, picking it up from Wilhelm Dilthey and others, made it a focus of his view of the kind of sociological explanation he advocated, and was followed by a long European tradition up through Jurgen Habermas; Talcott Parsons led its supporters in the US. Often advocated as the main window we have into the behavior of those in other cultures from our own. Derided by the neo-positivist philosophers of science, and sociologists who agreed with them, as 'psychologistic' and hence unscientific, but a key element in qualitative methodology; see understanding for a defense.