Blackwell Reference Online

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Hermeneutics is a branch of sociology concerned with human understanding and interpretation. Originally applied solely to texts, sociologists have applied hermeneutics to social events by examining participants' understandings of the events from the standpoint of their specific historical and cultural context. Hermeneutics is opposed to the view that social phenomena can be grasped adequately by reference to invariant laws of cause and effect or statistical regularities, as with positivist and behaviorist approaches and some elements of functionalist theory. Hermeneutics is one among a range of approaches to meaning, symbolization, and representation in social life that includes semiotics, structuralism, deconstruction, and discourse analysis. The term hermeneutics derives from the Greek verb hermeneuein (“to interpret”), thereby relating to the ancient Greek messenger of the gods, Hermes. His role was more complex than that of mere messenger because before Hermes could translate and communicate the words of the gods (which were unintelligible to humans), he first had to interpret and understand their meanings for himself. This complex process is key to theories of hermeneutics, in which texts are understood as intermediaries between writers and audiences. In particular, hermeneutics initially focused on interpreting the Bible in order to understand the word of God. Among German ... log in or subscribe to read full text