Psychopathy between explanation and understanding: toward an ontology of the self-interpreting person “Die natur Erklären Wir, das Seelenleben Verstehen Wir (we explain nature; we understand psychic life)” (Wilhelm Dilthey)
Aposta July 20, 2026 Hüseyin Fırat Şenol
This article reconsiders the relationship between explanation (Erklären) and understanding (Verstehen) in the philosophy of psychological science, using psychopathy as a case study. It argues that contemporary neuroscientific research explains psychopathy causally by identifying neurobiological, cognitive, and affective mechanisms, but philosophical questions about personhood, moral agency, and self-understanding remain underexplored. Drawing on the hermeneutic tradition from Vico, Dilthey, Jaspers, Heidegger, Gadamer, Ricoeur, and Taylor, the article contends that explanation and understanding are complementary modes of ontological disclosure, not competing methodologies.