Hermeneutics: A Very Short Introduction

Good introduction

I enjoyed reading this book, which I found accessible and engaging, even for me, a non-specialist. I particularly admired the authors' dismantling of logical positivism, without resort to an adversarial religious stance or dismissal of the role and benefits of empirical knowledge. Although Zimmermann suggests that logical positivism - with attendant notions of objectivity - has long been contested by philosophers of science, he mentions the lingering effects in the public arena. This resonates with my own disquiet upon repeatedly hearing the idiom “The facts speak for themselves” – a claim that presents two problems. First, it uses highly metaphorical language. Second, it’s hard to verify empirically. Somewhat paradoxically, the book presents scientists as far more humane, intuitive and richly-textured than most film-enhanced stereo-types (and, undoubtedly, some real-life characters). Although Zimmermann is critical of the quest for maths-like certainly, his arguments do draw on a gentle and reassuring reason, as well as generosity of spirit, without resorting to relativism. Perhaps most notably, the author exposes those, of many persuasions, who wish to disguise their own opinions with the cloak of objectivity. In so discussing, the author succinctly explains the results of the “systematic elimination of the knower from the process of knowing with a sole focus on the object of knowledge”. He insists - convincingly, I think - that knowledge is a process, mediated and invariably indicative of an advocate. This book, though drawing on old ideas, is pertinent to the contemporary world in which fundamentalism (religious and secular) threatens to bifurcate both our thinking and our communities. I highly recommend it to those exasperated by dichotomous, adversarial thinking; and, indeed, to those still so-inclined.

Excellent book. I really enjoyed it.

This book is more about the hermeneutic philosophy developed in continental Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries, a philosophy that attempts to understand understanding. This book is less about the historical practice and development of hermeneutics before the 19th century. Hermeneutics is about interpretation, the attempt to determine meaning in order to understand. The key insight of the hermeneutic philosophy is that meaning is contextual. We understand by intergrating parts or facts into a more cohesive, meaningful whole or context. The second and third chapters of the book give a historical overview of the development of the hermeneutics philosophy. The second shows how ideas from Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Husserl, and Heidegger each contributed. The third chapter is all about Gadamer bringing these ideas together and giving the definitive statement to the hermeneutic philosophy in his 1960 book "Truth and Method." Having explained the hermeneutic philosophy historically, the last four chapters of the book look at literature, theology, law, and science in the light of this philosophy. The author tries to show that looking at texts or data in all four areas is inherently hermeneutical. These chapters are good and insightful, but could have all used more historical context, particularly on developments prior to 1800. The interpretation of sacred and legal texts, the origins of hermeneutics as an activity or method, has a rich history which is not even hinted at here. With regard to the interpretation of sacred texts for example, there is no mention of Philo of Alexandria or Spinoza. There is little discussion of hermeneutics as a concrete method, nor of its history prior to the 1800s, prior to the hermeneutic philosophy. There is also no mention of analogues between ideas in the hermeneutic philosophy and cognitive science. For example, the hermeneutic circle could be seen as something akin to the "bottom-up" and "top down" processes talked about in cognitive psychology. However, the book does provide a well-written, excellent introduction to hermeneutics as a philosophy, and for that I'd recommend it!!

A very flippant account of our understanding of human knowledge from ancient to modern times. Not a historical account but an arbitrary, schematic reconstruction of the rise of modern philosophy and epistemology, and in effect subsuming theories of knowledge under hermeneutics.