DIAGNOSIS OF OUR TIME VIEWED AS A SCIENTI FIC TASK

The contribution provides an overview of a research project in the fie ld of the history of ideas which focuses on the methods, techniques an d principal content of contemporary diagnosis-based analysis and judge ment in the 20th century. Adopting a philosophical approach, the proje ct takes a look at the analytical form of contemporary diagnosis itsel f and poses the question as to the methods used by the latter which ar e intended to provide knowledge, the nature of this knowledge and the nature of the actual object of analysis. The externally imposed requir ement made of the social sciences to proffer relevant contributions as regards the imperative of a diagnosis of the contemporary world is in tended to be linked to a strict appraisal of the material used through the development of imminent judgement criteria. The material used for the project consists of approx. 60 influential contemporary diagnosis studies in the western world ranging from George Simmel, Ortega y Gas set, Karl Mannheim, David Riesman, John Kenneth Galbraith, Denis Meado ws, Ronald Inglehart to Jean-Francois Lyotard, Ulrich Beck, Ralf Dahre ndorf and Zygmunt Bauman. Whereas in the first half of the century a c ritique of mass society was of foremost concern, today's characteristi c main subjects include greater individualisation and ecology.