NEW PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIAL-SCIENCE - BOHMAN,J

James Bohman has succeeded in reinvigorating the old debate over expla nation and understanding by situating it within contemporary discussio ns about sociological indeterminacy and complexity. I argue that Bohma n's preference for a paradigm based on Habermas's theory of communicat ive action is justifiable given the explanatory deficiencies of ethnom ethodological, rational choice, rule-based, and functionalist methodol ogies. Yet I do not share his belief that the paradigm is preferable t o less formalized models of interpretation.