Hermeneutic and Phenomenological Approaches

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with the impact of hermeneutics and phenomenological philosophy on the social sciences and, more broadly, with the "very idea" of a social science, such as anthropology or sociology, and with the philosophical implications of the practice of these two intellectually, if not institutionally, inseparable disciplines. "Hermeneutics" in the sense of the science, art, or technique of interpretation of written texts long precedes the crystallization of anthropology and sociology in their modern form, while phenomenology as a philosophical approach coincides with their consolidation in the early 20th century. Both terms have been used in an extended sense to denote a variety of approaches in the social sciences. The word hermeneutics refers, of course, to the Greek messenger-god Hermes, and reflection on the problems of interpretation and criteria for the truth, validity or adequacy of interpretations goes back to ancient Greek thought in the European tradition and a similar historical distance in the other world civilizations.