Hermeneutics

Piet Van de Craen
Table of contents

One of the tasks of Hermes, the messenger god of the ancient Greeks, was to bring the gods’ messages to the mortals. In order to do this he was confronted with a double task: “[h]e had to understand and interpret for himself what the gods wanted to convey before he could proceed to translate, articulate, and explicate their intention to mortals” (Mueller-Vollmer 1985: 1). The Greek verb hermeneuein may be translated as ‘to interpret’ but, in fact, in ancient Greek the verb carried three meanings: “(1) to express aloud in words, that is, ‘to say’; (2) to explain, as in explaining a situation; and (3) to translate, as in the translation of a foreign tongue” (Palmer 1969: 13). Today, the hermeneutic enterprise in modern human and social sciences refers to the interpretation and understanding of written and spoken discourse as well as human behavior. It cuts across various disciplines, such as linguistics, literary analysis, philosophy, (social) psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and anthropology.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price.

References

Apel, K.-O.
1976 Transformation der Philosophie. Suhrkamp.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Apel, K.-O., C. Von Bormann, R. Bubner, H.-G. Gadamer, H. J. Giegel & J. Habermas
1971 Hermeneutik und Ideologiekritik. Suhrkamp.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bally, C.
1965 [1925] Le langage et la vie. Droz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boeckh, P.
1968 [1886] On interpretation and criticism. University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Saussure, F.
1972 [1916] Cours de linguistique générale (1972 ed.). Payot.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dilthey, W.
1976 Selected writings. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Edelman, G.
1987 Neural Darwinism. Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1989 The remembered present. Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gadamer, H.-G.
1966 Man and language. In H.-G. Gadamer (1976): 59–68.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1975 [1960/1965] Truth and method. Sheed & Ward.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1976 Philosophical hermeneutics. University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. J.
(ed.) 1982 Language and social identity. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Habermas, J.
1971 Der Universalitätsanspruch der Hermeneutik. In Karl-Otto Apel et al..: 120–159. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1976 Communication and the evolution of society. Beacon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1981 Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns. Suhrkamp.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heidegger, M.
1962 [1949] Being and time. Harper & Row.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G.
1987 Women, fire and dangerous things. University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levinson, S. C.
1983 Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luria, A.
1966 Higher cortical functions in man. Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mandelbaum, D.
1949 Selected writings of Edward Sapir. University of California Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mueller-Vollmer, K.
1985 Introduction. Language, mind and artifact: an outline of hermeneutic theory since the Enlightenment. In K. Mueller-Vollmer (ed.) The hermeneutics reader: 1–53. Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palmer, R.
1969 Hermeneutics. Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schleiermacher, F.
1959 Hermeneutik. Carl Winter Universitätsverlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tannen, D.
1982 Ethnic style in male-female conversation. In J. Gumperz (ed.): 217–231.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1986 That’s not what I meant!Morrow.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1991 You just don’t understand. Morrow. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomas, W. & F. Znaniecki
1958 [1918/1920] The Polish peasant in Europe and America. Dover.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
 
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue