Philosophical essays addressing the crucial questions of understanding and rationality.

Preface; 1. 'Two Cultures' revisited Anthony O'Hear; 2. Rational and other animals John Haldane; 3. Vico and metaphysical hermeneutics Leon Pompa; 4. Three major originators of the concept of Verstehen: Vico, Herder and Schleirmacher Roger Hausheer; 5. Weber's ideal types as models in the social sciences Friedel Weinert; 6. Verstehen, holism and fascism David Cooper; 7. Interpretation in history: Collingwood and historical understanding Patrick Gardiner; 8. The meaning of the hermeneutic tradition in contemporary philosophy Andrew Bowie; 9. Science and psychology Ilham Dilman; 10. To mental illness via a Rhyme for the Eye T. S. Champlin; 11. Can there be an epistemology of moods? Stephen Mulhall; 12. Feeling and cognition Barrie Falk; 13. Believing in order to understand Cyril Barrett; 14. Data and theory in aesthetics: philosophical understanding and misunderstanding Ronald Hepburn; 15. Anti-meaning as ideology: the case of deconstruction Robert Grant; 16. Perictione in colophon Roger Scruton; Index of names.