Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

This area of philosophical activity and enquiry is concerned with the theory and practice of understanding in general, and the interpretation of the meaning of texts and actions in particular. In the two decades after the publication of Hans-Georg Gadamer's Truth and Method in 1960, hermeneutics came to represent a central topic in philosophy and cultural analysis, thereby vindicating the assertion contained in this seminal work concerning the ‘university of the hermeneutic problem’. Gadamer's position is pivotal in contemporary hermeneutics. Working from within the tradition of Heidegger's ontology, he could critically appropriate and develop earlier formulations of the ‘hermeneutic problem’ and provide the foundations for the subsequent application of hermeneutic insights to a wide field. In the social sciences, the influence of hermeneutics has been pervasive. Debates concerning, for example, the scientific status of the social sciences, the relationship of subject and object, the meaning of ‘objectivity’, the formulation of appropriate methods, the meaningful constitution of the object have all been crucially shaped by hermeneutics and today proceed largely on its terrain. The seminal influence of Gadamer's work can also be traced in a wide range of disciplines outside philosophy and the social sciences, ranging from medicine to business studies to architecture – in fact, ... log in or subscribe to read full text