ABSTRACT
Christopher Lasch wrote persuasively about our need for a “new wisdom of limits” in modern times. This chapter argues that the lack of such an appreciation of limits is a key to our inability to acknowledge and come to terms with human suffering. Both empiricist and qualitative approaches to social science inquiry tend to adopt a distanced, “representational,” morally neutral stance toward human phenomena that does nothing to deter dominant, exorbitant ideals of expanding power and control. It is suggested that hermeneutic philosophy offers a more plausible and promising approach to social inquiry. It views understanding as ultimately practical and not the work of a single, monological agent but resulting from processes of mutual influence and dialogue. This means that social and psychological theory and research are themselves a “form of practice.” They do not stand apart from but are another strand or facet of the historical and cultural search for understanding and meaning, including the meaning of suffering.
