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Hermeneutics () "hermeneutics". Collins English Dictionary. is the theory and of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and .

(1999). 9780521637220, Cambridge University Press. .
(1980). 9780855271473, Harvester Press.
As necessary, hermeneutics may include the art of understanding and communication.
(2025). 9780199685356, Oxford University Press. .

Modern hermeneutics includes both verbal and non-verbal communication, The Routledge Companion to Philosophy in Organization Studies, Routledge, 2015, p. 113.Joann McNamara, From Dance to Text and Back to Dance: A Hermeneutics of Dance Interpretive Discourse, PhD thesis, Texas Woman's University, 1994. as well as , , and pre-understandings. Hermeneutics has been broadly applied in the , especially in law, history and theology.

Hermeneutics was initially applied to the interpretation, or , of , and has been later broadened to questions of general interpretation.

(1994). 9780300059694, Yale University Press.
p. 2 The terms hermeneutics and exegesis are sometimes used interchangeably. Hermeneutics is a wider discipline which includes written, verbal, and nonverbal communication. Exegesis focuses primarily upon the word and grammar of texts.

Hermeneutic, as a in the singular, refers to some particular method of interpretation (see, in contrast, double hermeneutic).


Etymology
Hermeneutics is derived from the Greek word ἑρμηνεύω (, "translate, interpret"),, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (: , 1971), p. 724. from ἑρμηνεύς (, "translator, interpreter"), of uncertain etymology (R. S. P. Beekes (2009) suggests a origin).R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 462. The technical term ἑρμηνεία (, "interpretation, explanation") was introduced into philosophy mainly through the title of 's work Περὶ Ἑρμηνείας (""), commonly referred to by its Latin title De Interpretatione and translated in English as On Interpretation. It is one of the earliest () extant philosophical works in the Western tradition to deal with the relationship between language and logic in a comprehensive, explicit and formal way.

The early usage of "hermeneutics" places it within the boundaries of the .Grondin, Jean (1994). Introduction to Philosophical Hermeneutics. Yale University Press. . A message must be received with implicit uncertainty regarding its truth. This ambiguity is an irrationality; it is a sort of madness that is inflicted upon the receiver of the message. Only one who possesses a rational method of interpretation (i.e., a hermeneutic) could determine the truth or falsity of the message.


Folk etymology
places its origin with , the mythological Greek who was the 'messenger of the gods'.Hoy, David Couzens (1981). The Critical Circle. University of California Press. Aside from being a mediator among the gods and between the gods and men, he led souls to the upon death.

Moreover, Hermes was considered the inventor of language and speech, an interpreter, a liar, a thief, and a trickster. These multiple roles made Hermes an ideal representative figure for hermeneutics. As Socrates noted, words have the power to reveal or conceal and can deliver messages in an ambiguous way. The Greek view of language as consisting of signs that could lead to truth or to falsehood was the essence of Hermes, who was said to relish the uneasiness of those who received the messages he delivered.White, R. E., & K. Cooper, Qualitative Research in the Post-Modern Era: Critical Approaches and Selected Methodologies (London: , 2022), p. 63.


In religious traditions

Mesopotamian hermeneutics

Islamic hermeneutics

Talmudic hermeneutics
Summaries of the principles by which Torah can be interpreted date back to, at least, Hillel the Elder, although the thirteen principles set forth in the Baraita of Rabbi Ishmael are perhaps the best known. These principles ranged from standard rules of logic (e.g., a fortiori argument known) to more expansive ones, such as the rule that a passage could be interpreted by reference to another passage in which the same word appears (Gezerah Shavah). The did not ascribe equal persuasive power to the various principles.See, e.g., Rambam Hilkhot Talmud Torah 4:8

Traditional Jewish hermeneutics differed from the Greek method in that the rabbis considered the (the Jewish Biblical canon) to be without error. Any apparent inconsistencies had to be understood by means of careful examination of a given text within the context of other texts. There were different levels of interpretation: some were used to arrive at the plain meaning of the text, some expounded the law given in the text, and others found secret or levels of understanding.


Vedic hermeneutics
Vedic hermeneutics involves the exegesis of the , the earliest holy texts of . The Mimamsa was the leading hermeneutic school and their primary purpose was understanding what (righteous living) involved by a detailed hermeneutic study of the Vedas. They also derived the rules for the various rituals that had to be performed precisely.

The foundational text is the of (c. 3rd to 1st century BCE) with a major commentary by Śabara (c. the 5th or 6th century CE). The Mimamsa sutra summed up the basic rules for Vedic interpretation.


Buddhist hermeneutics
Buddhist hermeneutics deals with the interpretation of the vast , particularly those texts which are said to be spoken by the () and other enlightened beings. Buddhist hermeneutics is deeply tied to Buddhist spiritual practice and its ultimate aim is to extract of reaching spiritual enlightenment or . A central question in Buddhist hermeneutics is which Buddhist teachings are explicit, representing ultimate truth, and which teachings are merely conventional or relative.


Biblical hermeneutics
Biblical hermeneutics is the study of the principles of interpretation of the Bible. While Jewish and Christian biblical hermeneutics have some overlap, they have very different interpretive traditions.

The early traditions of biblical had few unifying characteristics in the beginning but tended toward unification in later schools of biblical hermeneutics.

Augustine offers hermeneutics and in his De doctrina christiana. He stresses the importance of humility in the study of Scripture. He also regards the duplex commandment of love in Matthew 22 as the heart of Christian faith. In Augustine's hermeneutics, signs have an important role. God can communicate with the believer through the signs of the Scriptures. Thus, humility, love, and the knowledge of signs are an essential hermeneutical presupposition for a sound interpretation of the Scriptures. Although Augustine endorses some teaching of the of his time, he recasts it according to a theocentric doctrine of the Bible. Similarly, in a practical discipline, he modifies the classical theory of oratory in a Christian way. He underscores the meaning of diligent study of the Bible and prayer as more than mere human knowledge and oratory skills. As a concluding remark, Augustine encourages the interpreter and preacher of the Bible to seek a good manner of life and, most of all, to love God and neighbor.

There is traditionally a fourfold sense of biblical hermeneutics: literal, moral, allegorical (spiritual), and anagogical.


Literal
Encyclopædia Britannica states that literal analysis means "a biblical text is to be deciphered according to the 'plain meaning' expressed by its linguistic construction and historical context." The intention of the authors is believed to correspond to the literal meaning. Literal hermeneutics is often associated with the verbal inspiration of the Bible.'Hermeneutics' 2014, Encyclopædia Britannica, Research Starters, EBSCOhost, viewed 17 March 2015


Moral
Moral interpretation searches for moral lessons which can be understood from writings within the Bible. Allegories are often placed in this category.


Allegorical
Allegorical interpretation states that biblical narratives have a second level of reference that is more than the people, events and things that are explicitly mentioned. One type of allegorical interpretation is known as typological, where the key figures, events, and establishments of the Old Testament are viewed as "types" (patterns). In the New Testament this can also include foreshadowing of people, objects, and events. According to this theory, readings like Noah's Ark could be understood by using the Ark as a "type" of the Christian church that God designed from the start.


Anagogical
This type of interpretation is more often known as mystical interpretation. It claims to explain the events of the Bible and how they relate to or predict what the future holds. This is evident in the , which attempts to reveal the mystical significance of the numerical values of words and letters.

In Judaism, is also evident in the medieval . In Christianity, it can be seen in .


Philosophical hermeneutics

Ancient and medieval hermeneutics

Modern hermeneutics
The discipline of hermeneutics emerged with the new education of the 15th century as a historical and critical for analyzing texts. In a triumph of early modern hermeneutics, the Italian humanist proved in 1440 that the Donation of Constantine was a forgery. This was done through intrinsic evidence of the text itself. Thus hermeneutics expanded from its medieval role of explaining the true meaning of the Bible.

However, biblical hermeneutics did not die off. For example, the Protestant Reformation brought about a renewed interest in the interpretation of the Bible, which took a step away from the interpretive tradition developed during the Middle Ages back to the texts themselves. and emphasized scriptura sui ipsius interpres (scripture interprets itself). Calvin used brevitas et facilitas as an aspect of theological hermeneutics.Myung Jun Ahn, "Brevitas et facilitas : a study of a vital aspect in the theological hermeneutics of John Calvin" [5]

The rationalist Enlightenment led hermeneutists, especially exegetists, to view Scriptural texts as secular classical texts. They interpreted Scripture as responses to historical or social forces so that, for example, apparent contradictions and difficult passages in the New Testament might be clarified by comparing their possible meanings with contemporary Christian practices.

Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) explored the nature of understanding in relation not just to the problem of deciphering sacred texts but to all human texts and modes of communication.

The interpretation of a text must proceed by framing its content in terms of the overall organization of the work. Schleiermacher distinguished between grammatical interpretation and psychological interpretation. The former studies how a work is composed from general ideas; the latter studies the peculiar combinations that characterize the work as a whole. He said that every problem of interpretation is a problem of understanding and even defined hermeneutics as the art of avoiding misunderstanding. Misunderstanding was to be avoided by means of knowledge of grammatical and psychological laws.

During Schleiermacher's time, a fundamental shift occurred from understanding not merely the exact words and their objective meaning, to an understanding of the writer's distinctive character and point of view.

Nineteenth- and twentieth-century hermeneutics emerged as a theory of understanding ( ) through the work of Friedrich Schleiermacher ( Romantic hermeneuticsKurt Mueller-Vollmer (ed.), The Hermeneutics Reader, Continuum, 1988, p. 72. and methodological hermeneutics),Edward Joseph Echeverria, Criticism and Commitment: Major Themes in Contemporary "Post-Critical" Philosophy, Rodopi, 1981, p. 221. August Böckh (methodological hermeneutics),Thomas M. Seebohm, Hermeneutics: Method and Methodology, Springer, 2007, p. 55. ( epistemological hermeneutics),Jack Martin, Jeff Sugarman, Kathleen L. Slaney (eds.), The Wiley Handbook of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology: Methods, Approaches, and New Directions for Social Sciences, Wiley Blackwell, p. 56. ( ontological hermeneutics,Martin Heidegger, Ontology: The Hermeneutics of Facticity, Indiana University Press, 2008, p. 92. hermeneutic phenomenology,Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, Phenomenology World-Wide: Foundations – Expanding Dynamics – Life-Engagements A Guide for Research and Study, Springer, 2014, p. 246.Cf. interpretative phenomenological analysis in psychological qualitative research. and transcendental hermeneutic phenomenology), Hans-Georg Gadamer (ontological hermeneutics),Jeff Malpas, Hans-Helmuth Gande (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Hermeneutics, Routledge, 2014, p. 259. ( Straussian hermeneutics),Winfried Schröder (ed.), Reading between the lines – Leo Strauss and the history of early modern philosophy, Walter de Gruyter, 2015, p. 39, "According to Robert Hunt, 'the Straussian hermeneutic ... sees the course of intellectual history as an ongoing conversation about important philosophical questions'." Paul Ricœur (hermeneutic phenomenology),, Hermeneutic Phenomenology: The Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, Northwestern University Press, 1971, p. 198. (Marxist hermeneutics), Erasmus: Speculum Scientarium, 25, p. 162: "the different versions of Marxist hermeneutics by the examples of 's Origins of the German Tragedy , ... and also by Ernst Bloch's Hope the Principle ." (Marxist hermeneutics),Richard E. Amacher, Victor Lange, New Perspectives in German Literary Criticism: A Collection of Essays, Princeton University Press, 2015, p. 11. ( radical hermeneutics, namely ),John D. Caputo, Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction, and the Hermeneutic Project, Indiana University Press, 1988, p. 5: "Derrida is the turning point for radical hermeneutics, the point where hermeneutics is pushed to the brink. Radical hermeneutics situates itself in the space which is opened up by the exchange between Heidegger and Derrida..."International Institute for Hermeneutics – About Hermeneutics . Retrieved: 2015-11-08. (diacritical hermeneutics), (Marxist hermeneutics),Mohanty, Satya P. "Jameson's Marxist Hermeneutics and the need for an Adequate Epistemology." In Literary Theory and the Claims of History: Postmodernism, Objectivity, Multicultural Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997. pp. 93–115. and John Thompson (critical hermeneutics).

Regarding the relation of hermeneutics with problems of analytic philosophy, there has been, particularly among analytic Heideggerians and those working on Heidegger's philosophy of science, an attempt to try and situate Heidegger's hermeneutic project in debates concerning realism and : arguments have been presented both for Heidegger's hermeneutic idealism (the thesis that meaning determines or, equivalently, that our understanding of the being of entities is what determines entities as entities)Steven Galt Crowell, Jeff Malpas (eds.), Transcendental Heidegger, Stanford University Press, 2007, pp. 116–117. and for Heidegger's hermeneutic realismHubert L. Dreyfus, Mark A. Wrathall (eds.), Heidegger Reexamined: Truth, realism, and the history of being, Routledge, 2002, pp. 245, 274, 280; Hubert L. Dreyfus, "Heidegger's Hermeneutic Realism," in: David R. Hiley, James Bohman, Richard Shusterman (eds.), The Interpretive Turn: Philosophy, Science, Culture, Cornell University Press, 1991. (the thesis that (a) there is a nature in itself and science can give us an explanation of how that nature works, and (b) that (a) is compatible with the ontological implications of our everyday practices).Hubert L. Dreyfus, Mark A. Wrathall (eds.), Heidegger Reexamined: Truth, realism, and the history of being, Routledge, 2002, p. 245.

Philosophers that worked to combine analytic philosophy with hermeneutics include Georg Henrik von Wright and . Roy J. Howard termed this approach analytic hermeneutics.Roy J. Howard, Three Faces of Hermeneutics: An Introduction to Current Theories of Understanding, University of California Press, 1982, ch. 1.

Other contemporary philosophers influenced by the hermeneutic tradition include Charles Taylor ( engaged hermeneutics) and Dagfinn Føllesdal.


Dilthey (1833–1911)
broadened hermeneutics even more by relating interpretation to historical objectification. Understanding moves from the outer manifestations of human action and productivity to the exploration of their inner meaning. In his last important essay, "The Understanding of Other Persons and Their Manifestations of Life" (1910), Dilthey made clear that this move from outer to inner, from expression to what is expressed, is not based on , understood as a direct identification with the Other. Interpretation, on a hermeneutical conception of empathy involves an indirect or mediated understanding that can only be attained by placing human expressions in their historical context. Thus, understanding is not a process of reconstructing the state of mind of the author, but one of articulating what is expressed in his work.

Dilthey divided sciences of the mind () into three structural levels: experience, expression, and comprehension.

  • Experience means to feel a situation or thing personally. Dilthey suggested that we can always grasp the meaning of unknown thought when we try to experience it. His understanding of experience is very similar to that of phenomenologist .
  • Expression converts experience into meaning because the discourse has an appeal to someone outside of oneself. Every saying is an expression. Dilthey suggested that one can always return to an expression, especially to its written form, and this practice has the same objective value as an experiment in science. The possibility of returning makes scientific analysis possible, and therefore the humanities may be labeled as science. Moreover, he assumed that an expression may be "saying" more than the speaker intends because the expression brings forward meanings which the individual consciousness may not fully understand.
  • The last structural level of the science of the mind, according to Dilthey, is comprehension, which is a level that contains both comprehension and incomprehension. Incomprehension means, more or less, wrong understanding. He assumed that comprehension produces coexistence: "he who understands, understands others; he who does not understand stays alone."


Heidegger (1889–1976)
In the 20th century, 's philosophical hermeneutics shifted the focus from interpretation to understanding as rooted in fundamental ontology, which was treated more as a direct—and thus more authentic—way of being-in-the-world ( In-der-Welt-sein) than merely as "a way of knowing."
(1962). 9780060638504, Harper and Row. .
p. H125
For example, he called for a "special hermeneutic of empathy" to dissolve the classic philosophic issue of "other minds" by putting the issue in the context of the being-with of human relatedness. (Heidegger himself did not complete this inquiry.)
(2025). 9780230241831, Palgrave Macmillan. .
p. 20

Advocates of this approach claim that some texts, and the people who produce them, cannot be studied by means of using the same scientific methods that are used in the , thus drawing upon arguments similar to those of . Moreover, they claim that such texts are conventionalized expressions of the experience of the author. Thus, the interpretation of such texts will reveal something about the in which they were formed, and, more significantly, will provide the reader with a means of sharing the experiences of the author.

The reciprocity between text and context is part of what Heidegger called the hermeneutic circle. Among the key thinkers who elaborated this idea was the .


Gadamer (1900–2002)
Hans-Georg Gadamer's hermeneutics is a development of the hermeneutics of his teacher, Heidegger. Gadamer asserted that methodical contemplation is opposite to experience and reflection. We can reach the truth only by understanding or mastering our experience. According to Gadamer, our understanding is not fixed but rather is changing and always indicating new perspectives. The most important thing is to unfold the nature of individual understanding.

Gadamer pointed out that prejudice is an element of our understanding and is not per se without value. Indeed, prejudices, in the sense of pre-judgements of the thing we want to understand, are unavoidable. Being alien to a particular tradition is a condition of our understanding. He said that we can never step outside of our tradition—all we can do is try to understand it. This further elaborates the idea of the hermeneutic circle.


New hermeneutic
is the theory and methodology of interpretation to understand Biblical texts through . The essence of new hermeneutic emphasizes not only the existence of language but also the fact that language is eventualized in the history of individual life.(1999) Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation, R.N. Soulen, "Ernst Fuchs", by John Hayes, 422–423 This is called the event of language. Ernst Fuchs,Ernst Fuchs, Briefe an Gerhard Ebeling, in: Festschrift aaO 48 , and James M. Robinson are the scholars who represent the new hermeneutics.


Marxist hermeneutics
The method of Marxist hermeneutics has been developed by the work of, primarily, and . Benjamin outlines his theory of the allegory in his study Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels ("Trauerspiel" literally means "mourning play" but is often translated as "tragic drama").
(2025). 9781844673483, Verso.
draws on Biblical hermeneutics, ,David Kaufmann, "Thanks for the Memory: Bloch, Benjamin and the Philosophy of History," in Not Yet: Reconsidering Ernst Bloch, ed. Jamie Owen Daniel and Tom Moylan (London and New York: Verson, 1997), p. 33. and the work of , to advance his theory of Marxist hermeneutics in his influential The Political Unconscious. Jameson's Marxist hermeneutics is outlined in the first chapter of the book, titled "On Interpretation"
(1982). 9780801492228, Cornell University Press.
pp. 17–102
Jameson re-interprets (and secularizes) the fourfold system (or four levels) of Biblical exegesis (literal; moral; allegorical; anagogical) to relate interpretation to the mode of production, and eventually, history.
(1984). 9780801492846, Cornell University Press.


Objective hermeneutics
first used the term " objective hermeneutics" in his Objective Knowledge (1972).Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (ed.), Phenomenology of Life – From the Animal Soul to the Human Mind: Book II. The Human Soul in the Creative Transformation of the Mind, Springer, 2007, p. 312.

In 1992, the Association for Objective Hermeneutics (AGOH) was founded in Frankfurt am Main by scholars of various disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Its goal is to provide all scholars who use the methodology of objective hermeneutics with a means of exchanging information. Association for Objective Hermeneutics website. Accessed: January 27, 2014.

In one of the few translated texts of this German school of hermeneutics, its founders declared:


Other recent developments
's (1904–1984) hermeneutics is less well known, but a case for considering his work as the culmination of the hermeneutical revolution that began with Heidegger was made in several articles by Lonergan specialist Frederick G. Lawrence.Frederick G. Lawrence, "Martin Heidegger and the Hermeneutic Revolution", "Hans-Georg Gadamer and the Hermeneutic Revolution", "The Hermeneutic Revolution and Bernard Lonergan: Gadamer and Lonergan on Augustine's Verbum Cordis – the Heart of Postmodern Hermeneutics", "The Unknown 20th-Century Hermeneutic Revolution: Jerusalem and Athens in Lonergan's Integral Hermeneutics", 19/1–2 (2008) 7–30, 31–54, 55–86, 87–118.

Paul Ricœur (1913–2005) developed a hermeneutics that is based upon Heidegger's concepts.

(1922–2017) elaborated a hermeneutics based on American . He applied his model to with political motivations akin to those of .

Jürgen Habermas (b. 1929) criticized the conservatism of previous hermeneutists, especially , because their focus on tradition seemed to undermine possibilities for social criticism and transformation. He also criticized and previous members of the for missing the hermeneutical dimension of .

Habermas incorporated the notion of the and emphasized the importance for social theory of interaction, communication, labor, and production. He viewed hermeneutics as a dimension of critical social theory.

(b. 1939) has proposed an orientational hermeneutics that brings out the contextualizing function of reflective judgment. It extends ideas of and to supplement the dialogical approach of Gadamer with a diagnostic approach that can deal with an ever-changing and multicultural world.

Andrés Ortiz-Osés (1943–2021) developed his symbolic hermeneutics as the response to hermeneutics. His main statement regarding symbolic understanding of the world is that meaning is a healing of injury.

Two scholars who have published criticism of Gadamer's hermeneutics are the Italian jurist and the American literary theorist E. D. Hirsch.

Other hermeneutic scholars include (b. 1955) and Maurizio Ferraris (b. 1956).


Applications

Archaeology
In , hermeneutics means the interpretation and understanding of material through analysis of possible meanings and social uses.

Proponents argue that interpretation of artifacts is unavoidably hermeneutic because we cannot know for certain the meaning behind them. We can only apply modern values when interpreting. This is most commonly seen in , where descriptions such as "scraper" can be highly subjective and actually unproven until the development of microwear analysis some thirty years ago.

Opponents argue that a hermeneutic approach is too and that their own interpretations are based on evaluation.

(2025). 9781107022638, Cambridge Press.


Architecture
There are several traditions of architectural scholarship that draw upon the hermeneutics of and , such as Christian Norberg-Schulz, and in the circles of phenomenology. Lindsay Jones examines the way architecture is received and how that reception changes with time and context (e.g., how a building is interpreted by critics, users, and historians).Jones, L. 2000. The Hermeneutics of Sacred Architecture: Experience, Interpretation, Comparison, p. 263; Volume Two: Hermeneutical Calisthenics: A Morphology of Ritual-Architectural Priorities, Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press situates hermeneutics within a critique of the application of overly scientific thinking to architecture.Vesely, D. 2004. Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation: The Question of Creativity in the Shadow of Production, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. This tradition fits within a critique of the EnlightenmentPerez-Gomez, A. 1985. Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. and has also informed design-studio teaching. sees the study of history and Asian cultures by architects as a hermeneutical encounter with otherness.Snodgrass, A., and Coyne, R. 2006. Interpretation in Architecture: Design as a Way of Thinking, London: Routledge, pp. 165–180. He also deploys arguments from hermeneutics to explain design as a process of interpretation.Snodgrass, A., and Coyne, R. 2006. Interpretation in Architecture: Design as a Way of Thinking, London: Routledge, pp. 29–55 Along with , he extends the argument to the nature of architectural education and design.Snodgrass, A.B., and Coyne, R.D. 1992. "Models, Metaphors and the Hermeneutics of Designing." Design Issues, 9(1): 56 74.


Education
Hermeneutics motivates a broad range of applications in educational theory. The connection between hermeneutics and education has deep historical roots. The ancient Greeks gave the interpretation of poetry a central place in educational practice, as indicated by Dilthey: "systematic exegesis ( hermeneia) of the poets developed out of the demands of the educational system."

Gadamer more recently wrote on the topic of education, and more recent treatments of educational issues across various hermeneutical approaches are to be found in Fairfield and Gallagher.


Environment
Environmental hermeneutics applies hermeneutics to environmental issues conceived broadly to subjects including "" and "" (both terms are matters of hermeneutical contention), landscapes, ecosystems, built environments (where it overlaps architectural hermeneutics ), inter-species relationships, the relationship of the body to the world, and more.


International relations
Insofar as hermeneutics is a basis of both and constitutive theory (both of which have made important inroads into the branch of international relations theory and political science), it has been applied to international relations.

Steve Smith refers to hermeneutics as the principal way of grounding foundationalist yet postpositivist theory of international relations.

Radical is an example of a postpositivist anti-foundationalist of international relations.Østerud, Ø., "Antinomies of Postmodernism in International Studies", Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Nov., 1996), pp. 385–390.


Law
Some scholars argue that law and theology are particular forms of hermeneutics because of their need to interpret legal tradition or scriptural texts. Moreover, the problem of interpretation has been central to legal theory since at least the 11th century.

In the and Italian Renaissance, the schools of , commentatores, and usus modernus distinguished themselves by their approach to the interpretation of "laws" (mainly 's Corpus Juris Civilis). The University of Bologna gave birth to a "legal Renaissance" in the 11th century, when the Corpus Juris Civilis was rediscovered and systematically studied by men such as and Johannes Gratian. It was an interpretative Renaissance. Subsequently, these were fully developed by and .

Since then, interpretation has always been at the center of legal thought. Friedrich Carl von Savigny and , among others, made significant contributions to general hermeneutics. Legal interpretivism, most famously 's, may be seen as a branch of philosophical hermeneutics.


Phenomenology
In qualitative research, the beginnings of phenomenology stem from German philosopher and researcher . In his early days, Husserl studied mathematics, but over time his disinterest with empirical methods led him to philosophy and eventually phenomenology. Husserl's phenomenology inquires on the specifics of a certain experience or experiences and attempts to unfold the meaning of experience in everyday life. Phenomenology started as philosophy and then developed into methodology over time. American researcher contributed to phenomenological research methodology through what he described as experimental phenomenology: "Phenomenology, in the first instance, is like an investigative science, an essential component of which is an experiment."
(1986). 9780887061998, State University of New York Press.
His work contributed heavily to the implementation of phenomenology as a methodology.

The beginnings of hermeneutic phenomenology stem from a German researcher and student of Husserl, . Both researchers attempted to pull out the lived experiences of others through philosophical concepts, but Heidegger's main difference from Husserl was his belief that consciousness was not separate from the world but a formation of who we are as living individuals. Hermeneutic phenomenology stresses that every event or encounter involves some type of interpretation from an individual's background, and that we cannot separate this from an individual's development through life. Ihde also focuses on hermeneutic phenomenology within his early work, and draws connections between Husserl and French philosopher Paul Ricoeur's work in the field. Ricoeur focuses on the importance of symbols and linguistics within hermeneutic phenomenology. Overall, hermeneutic phenomenological research focuses on historical meanings and experiences, and their developmental and social effects on individuals.

(2025). 9780791455036, State University of New York Press.


Political philosophy
Italian philosopher and Spanish philosopher in their book Hermeneutic Communism, when discussing contemporary capitalist regimes, stated that, "A politics of descriptions does not impose power in order to dominate as a philosophy; rather, it is functional for the continued existence of a society of dominion, which pursues truth in the form of imposition (violence), conservation (realism), and triumph (history)."Gianni Vattimo and Santiago Zabala. Hermeneutic Communism: From Heidegger to Marx Columbia University Press. 2011, p. 12.

Vattimo and Zabala also stated that they view interpretation as anarchy and affirmed that "existence is interpretation" and that "hermeneutics is weak thought."


Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysts have made ample use of hermeneutics since first gave birth to their discipline. In 1900 Freud wrote that the title he chose for The Interpretation of Dreams "makes plain which of the traditional approaches to the problem of dreams I am inclined to follow... i.e. 'interpreting' a dream implies assigning a 'meaning' to it."

The French psychoanalyst later extended Freudian hermeneutics into other psychical realms. His early work from the 1930s–1950s is particularly influenced by Heidegger, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty's hermeneutical phenomenology.


Psychology and cognitive science
and Cognitive science have recently become interested in hermeneutics, especially as an alternative to cognitivism.

's critique of conventional artificial intelligence has been influential among psychologists who are interested in hermeneutic approaches to meaning and interpretation, as discussed by philosophers such as (cf. Embodied cognition) and Ludwig Wittgenstein (cf. Discursive psychology).

Hermeneutics is also influential in humanistic psychology.


Religion and theology
The understanding of a depends upon the reader's particular hermeneutical viewpoint. Some theorists, such as Paul Ricœur, have applied modern philosophical hermeneutics to theological texts (in Ricœur's case, the Bible).

, as a hermeneutist, understands religion as 'experience of the sacred', and interprets the sacred in relation to the profane.Eliade, Mircea (1987), The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, translated by Willard R. Trask. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. The Romanian scholar underlines that the relation between the sacred and the profane is not of opposition, but of complementarity, having interpreted the profane as a .Iţu, Mircia (2002), Introducere în hermeneutică ( Introduction to Hermeneutics), Brașov: Orientul latin, p. 63. The hermeneutics of the myth is a part of the hermeneutics of religion. Myth should not be interpreted as an illusion or a lie, because there is truth in myth to be rediscovered.Iţu, Mircia (2007), The Hermeneutics of the Myth, in Lumină lină, number 3, New York, pp. 33–49. Myth is interpreted by Eliade as 'sacred history'. He introduces the concept of 'total hermeneutics'.Eliade, Mircea (1978), La nostalgie des origines. Méthodologie et histoire des religions, Paris: Editions Gallimard, p. 116.

The term was notably used in 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI saying the Second Vatican Council needs to be viewed through the lens of a "hermeneutic of reform" rather than a "hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture". In subsequent discourse, this has become a "hermeneutic of continuity" contrasted with a "hermeneutic of rupture," and applied to dissident tendencies questioning recent church teaching in general and the teaching of . Following this, the term is now widely used: e.g. of suspicion, of tradition and kenosis, and of synodality. Benedict also spoke of the "hermeneutic of the cross", "of faith" necessary for exegesis, "of unity", while deploring a "hermeneutic of politics". Francis has warned against a "hermeneutic of conspiracy". Pope John Paul II taught a "hermeneutic of the gift".


Safety science
In the field of safety science, and especially in the study of human reliability, scientists have become increasingly interested in hermeneutic approaches.

It has been proposed by ergonomist Donald Taylor that mechanist models of human behaviour will only take us so far in terms of accident reduction, and that safety science must look at the meaning of accidents for human beings.

Other scholars in the field have attempted to create safety taxonomies that make use of hermeneutic concepts in terms of their categorisation of .


Sociology
In , hermeneutics is the interpretation and understanding of social events through analysis of their meanings for the human participants in the events. It enjoyed prominence during the 1960s and 1970s, and differs from other interpretive schools of sociology in that it emphasizes both contextWillis, W. J., & Jost, M. (2007). Foundations of qualitative research; Interpretive and critical approaches. London: Sage. p. 106 and form within any given social behaviour.

The central principle of sociological hermeneutics is that it is only possible to know the meaning of an act or statement within the context of the discourse or from which it originates. Context is critical to comprehension; an action or event that carries substantial weight to one person or culture may be viewed as meaningless or entirely different to another. For example, giving the "thumbs-up" gesture is widely accepted as a sign of a job well done in the United States, while other cultures view it as an insult. Similarly, marking a piece of paper and putting it into a box might be considered a meaningless act unless it is put into the context of an election (the act of putting a into a box).

Friedrich Schleiermacher, widely regarded as the father of sociological hermeneutics believed that, in order for an interpreter to understand the work of another author, they must familiarize themselves with the historical context in which the author published their thoughts. His work led to the inspiration of Heidegger's "hermeneutic circle" a frequently referenced model that claims one's understanding of individual parts of a text is based on their understanding of the whole text, while the understanding of the whole text is dependent on the understanding of each individual part. Hermeneutics in sociology was also heavily influenced by Gadamer.Charles A. Pressler, Fabio B. Dasilva, Sociology and Interpretation: From Weber to Habermas, SUNY Press, 1996, p. 168.


Criticism
Jürgen Habermas criticizes Gadamer's hermeneutics (see above) as being unsuitable for understanding society because it is unable to account for questions of social reality, like labor and domination.


See also


Notable precursors
  • Johann August ErnestiForster 2010, p. 22.
  • Johann Gottfried HerderForster 2010, p. 9.
  • Friedrich August WolfHans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, Bloomsbury, 2013, p. 185.
  • Georg Anton Friedrich Ast


Bibliography
  • , On Interpretation, Harold P. Cooke (trans.), in Aristotle, vol. 1 (Loeb Classical Library), pp. 111–179. London: William Heinemann, 1938.
  • Clingerman, F. and , M. Drenthen, D. Ustler (2013), Interpreting Nature: The Emerging Field of Environmental Hermeneutics, New York: Fordham University Press.
  • De La Torre, Miguel A., "Reading the Bible from the Margins," Orbis Books, 2002.
  • Fellmann, Ferdinand, "Symbolischer Pragmatismus. Hermeneutik nach Dilthey", Rowohlts deutsche Enzyklopädie, 1991.
  • Forster, Michael N., After Herder: Philosophy of Language in the German Tradition, Oxford University Press, 2010.
  • Ginev, Dimitri, Essays in the Hermeneutics of Science, Routledge, 2018.
  • Khan, Ali, "The Hermeneutics of Sexual Order".
  • Köchler, Hans, "Zum Gegenstandsbereich der Hermeneutik", in Perspektiven der Philosophie, vol. 9 (1983), pp. 331–341.
  • Köchler, Hans, "Philosophical Foundations of Civilizational Dialogue: The Hermeneutics of Cultural Self-comprehension versus the Paradigm of Civilizational Conflict." International Seminar on Civilizational Dialogue (3rd: 15–17 September 1997: Kuala Lumpur), BP171.5 ISCD. Kertas kerja persidangan / conference papers. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Library, 1997.
  • Mantzavinos, C. Naturalistic Hermeneutics, Cambridge University Press, 2005. .
  • Oevermann, U. et al. (1987): "Structures of meaning and objective Hermeneutics." In: Meha, V. et al. (eds.). Modern German Sociology. European Perspectives: a Series in Social Thought and Cultural Ctiticism. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 436–447.
  • Olesen, Henning Salling, ed. (2013): "Cultural Analysis and In-Depth Hermeneutics." Historical Social Research, Focus, 38, no. 2, pp. 7–157.
  • Wierciński, Andrzej. Ethics in the Light of Hermeneutical Philosophy, LIT Verlag, Zurich 2017.
  • Przyłębski, Andrzej. The Value of Motherland: An Introduction to a Hermeneutic Philosophy of Politics, LIT Verlag, Zurich 2022.
  • Przyłębski, Andrzej. Hermeneutics between Philosophy and Theology: The Imperative to Think the Incommensurable, Germany, Münster: LIT Verlag, 2010.


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