Hermeneutics
What Is Hermeneutics?
Hermeneutics provides a way of trying to make sense of the world around us. To follow the
arguments within hermeneutics it is necessary, above all, to understand the nature of the problem
its proponents set out to address. The entire enterprise revolves around the claim that there are
fundamental differences between the types of phenomena that are studied by the physical
sciences (inanimate, physical objects) and the types of phenomena studied by the social sciences
(human beings). The principal distinction between inanimate objects and human beings is
human subjectivity. Given that the concept of human subjectivity plays a pivotal role throughout
this chapter, a precise understanding of its use is essential. “Subjectivity” is a shorthand
reference for various forms of human expression. These can include emotions, ideas, desires,
etc. Subjectivity refers to whatever meaning people attach to their words, thoughts, or actions.
It follows from this that how phenomena are explained by the physical sciences differs
considerably from how phenomena are explained in the social sciences. Consider the many
ways to destroy a town. A volcano could erupt and bury the town. A riot might get out of
control and ravage the town. In the case of a volcano, a researcher could identify a causal chain
of geological events leading to the eruption. In the case of a riot, a researcher could also identify
a causal chain of events leading to the riot. However, in the case of the riot, the causal chain will
necessarily incorporate a number of subjective judgments on the part of the researcher regarding
the rioters’ actions. Why were the rioters upset? Why did they react in this manner? Why
didn’t they stop? The geologist has no similar concern for the subjectivity of the volcano. This
need to account for the subjectivity of human beings is the principal difference between the
physical and social sciences.
Human subjectivity reflects a person’s essential purpose and understanding of who he or she
is. For this reason, it is necessary to consider how proponents of hermeneutics define the nature
of human beings. Humans are intentional beings who create meaningful social phenomena.
Four consequences follow from this statement. First, human beings are intentional, creative
beings. This implies that a human being is someone who consciously and purposely creates
things, whether small items (like a hammer or a sandwich) or large-scale items (like a hospital or
an economic system). The essential point is that, by their nature, humans are beings who
purposely create things.
Second, the things that people create have meaning, they are meaningful social phenomena.
This implies that all those things that people create—the hammers, the sandwiches, the hospitals,
the economic systems—are expressions of their subjectivity. A painting, for instance, is the
expression of an artist’s subjectivity (thoughts, feelings, ideas). For this reason, we can study
any social phenomenon (as an outward expression) to understand the thoughts and feelings (the
subjectivity) of whoever created it.
Third, human subjectivity operates at both the level of the individual and the level of society.
That is, human beings create things both as individuals (hammers and sandwiches) and as
members of societies (hospitals and economic systems). When someone writes a book, we can
consider the book to be an expression of that person’s subjectivity. The meaning and
significance of that book is tied to the author as its creator. If a society constructs a series of
giant pyramids, then those pyramids are an expression of that society’s subjectivity. The
meaning and significance of those pyramids is tied to the specific society that created them.
This point can be taken a step further. The proponents of hermeneutics argue that to fully
understand the meaning of a book, one must first analyze the historical and cultural
circumstances in which the author lived and identify the author’s position in society. In this way,
the book is seen as an expression of the author’s individual subjectivity as well as an expression
of the historical and cultural circumstances in which the author lived. In other words, Charles
Dickens (1812-1870) the person is as much a product of nineteenth-century England as A Tale of
Two Cities (1859) is a product of Charles Dickens.
Fourth, the notion of meaningful social phenomena constitutes a very broad category. The
term refers to any physical artifact that is a human creation. In addition, meaningful social
phenomena can be any form of communication, verbal or nonverbal (a wink, a nod, or a shrug).
Literally any human creation falls into this category and can be analyzed for its meaning. The
purpose of hermeneutics is to understand how any specific social phenomenon can be thought of
as an outward expression of human subjectivity. Hermeneutics, therefore, must provide a
researcher with a sound basis for understanding the subjective meaning behind a wide array of
contemporary and historical social phenomena. This constitutes a systematic process of
interpretation. Researchers are asked to interpret the meaning behind various social phenomena
in a manner that will reveal the hidden subjectivity of the original creators of the phenomena.