Are you looking for someone to explain the concept of hermeneutics in simple terms? Then buckle up, because things are about to get philosophical.
In this article, in less than 10 minutes, you’ll get an overview of the following 3 things:
- What is the theory or philosophy behind the term hermeneutics?
- What is the hermeneutic circle and what is it used for?
- And who are the key thinkers in hermeneutics that you definitely should have heard of?
So, if you’re looking for a quick and painless overview of the topic, keep reading. By the end of this article, you’ll be at least a bit wiser than before.
Hermeneutics Explained
What is Hermeneutics?
Hermeneutics is “the art of methodically guided understanding” (Kaus, 2022, p.1), which means that it helps us as a researcher in understanding the overarching structures of meaning in human life and action.
Primarily dealing with written texts, as they offer potential access to these structures of meaning, hermeneutics is particularly relevant in the humanities. However, the significance of hermeneutics extends far beyond the boundaries of individual disciplines.
It involves interpreting texts or other symbols, as well as interpreting the act of interpreting itself. It’s about how we, as researchers, can better understand the social life around us.
Hermeneutics can thus serve as an auxiliary science for various disciplines. Whether a theologian aiming to understand the Bible, a lawyer interpreting legislation, or an educator decoding youth slang – all these scenarios require guidance on interpretation.
Are you still with me? I hope so. We’re about to get to the more tangible part. Hang in there.
Philosophical Hermeneutics (Gadamer)
Philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer takes a step further, conceiving hermeneutics not just as a tool for interpretation but as a process that touches on something much more fundamental.
In a philosophical sense, hermeneutics can also deal with how people or even entire nations understand each other.
For Gadamer’s teacher Martin Heidegger, it was already clear that hermeneutics represents a fundamental principle of human existence. That is, we humans are constantly engaged in understanding, and existence itself means to understand.
Gadamer particularly emphasized the role of language in hermeneutics. For him, understanding is always connected with language.
He also coined what I consider the most beautiful metaphor for understanding hermeneutics better. He describes hermeneutics as a never-ending conversation (“The Infinite Conversation”).
Imagine you’re a researcher looking for structures of meaning, and your data material is a text. Imagine you are you, and the text is your counterpart.
The metaphor of the infinite conversation suggests that you approach your counterpart (the text) with an open attitude.
You have certain preconceptions, which you “put at risk”. You’re open to the idea that the assumptions you entered the conversation with might be replaced by others, depending on what you learn from the conversation (with the text).
The conversation is infinite because hermeneutics repeats this adjustment of pre-knowledge and new knowledge over and over again. We’ll take a closer look at this important principle in a moment.
Another famous image used by Gadamer is the horizon. It represents the structure of meaning and the knowledge we are exposed to. The horizon affects us when we want to understand something new and provides us with orientation.
The Hermeneutic Circle
Having introduced Gadamer’s ontological considerations on hermeneutics, let’s see how this principle can be applied to concrete scientific methods.
If you’re familiar with my tutorials on qualitative content analysis or thematic analysis, this will seem familiar. These approaches can be seen as a hermeneutic process:
The analysis of qualitative data often does not proceed sequentially from start to finish. Instead, the process is dynamic. You can always return from the analysis to the research question, or from the presentation of results back to the development of categories.
This approach is fundamentally based on the hermeneutic circle. It envisages moving back and forth in spiral movements between pre-understanding and text understanding, similar to Gadamer’s infinite conversation. This principle is particularly evident in a quote from Jürgen Bolten (1985):
“Understanding a text means, therefore, to comprehend features of the text’s structure or content and its production, incorporating the text and reception history as well as reflecting on one’s own interpretation stance within a reciprocal justification relationship. The fact that there can be no false or correct interpretations, but at best more or less appropriate ones, follows from the […] historicity of the constituents of understanding and the related unfinishability of the hermeneutic spiral. […] According to the spiral movement, the interpretation regarding its hypothesis formation is subject to a mechanism of self-correction.” (pp. 362-363)
It’s also important to mention the relationship between the whole and the parts in the hermeneutic circle. Understanding a text means understanding its parts in relation to the whole and vice versa. This is why it’s called a circle or a spiral.
This principle also applies to the relationship between the text and its context, or between different texts. The interpretation always moves in a circle between understanding the individual parts and the whole.
Who Should You Know?
- Hans-Georg Gadamer: As mentioned, Gadamer is a key figure in hermeneutics. His work “Truth and Method” is a foundational text in the field.
- Martin Heidegger: Before Gadamer, Heidegger laid the groundwork for existential hermeneutics. His main work, “Being and Time,” is crucial for understanding the philosophical underpinnings of hermeneutics.
- Friedrich Schleiermacher: Often considered the father of modern hermeneutics, Schleiermacher emphasized the importance of understanding the author’s intention and the historical context.
- Wilhelm Dilthey: Dilthey developed the concept of the hermeneutic circle and stressed the difference between explaining natural phenomena and understanding human expressions.
Challenges of Hermeneutics
The inductive reasoning and the “infinity” of the hermeneutic approach can lead to challenges.
One of the most well-known issues in the history of hermeneutics revolves around the interpretation of the Bible. Here, a particular case arises due to the Bible being written by various authors, at different times, and within different cultural epochs.
If one understands the Bible as a cohesive work and deduces the whole from its parts, things become tricky.
The second challenge of hermeneutics and the hermeneutic circle is their infinity. If knowledge can never truly be considered complete, then there’s always a certain provisional nature to it.
We can never arrive at definitive statements, but must consider everything with reservations. This can be unsatisfying in some cases.
Conclusion
Hermeneutics, then, is not just a fancy term for interpreting texts. It’s a fundamental approach to understanding the world around us, grounded in the principle that our preconceptions and the context of our understanding are always in dialogue with what we seek to understand.
Whether you’re a student, a researcher, or simply someone interested in the philosophy of understanding, grappling with hermeneutics can deepen your appreciation for the complexities of interpretation.
So, the next time you sit down to interpret a text, remember: you’re engaging in a process that philosophers have pondered for centuries, and you’re part of the infinite conversation that is understanding itself.