The double hermeneutic is the theory, expounded by sociologist Anthony Giddens, that everyday "lay" concepts and those from the

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the o ...

have a two-way relationship. A common example is the idea of social class, a social-scientific category that has entered into wide use in society. Since the 1970s, held to be a distinguishing feature of the social sciences, the double hermeneutic has become a criterion for demarcating the human/social from the natural sciences. Ginev, D., ''Hermeneutic Realism: Reality Within Scientific Inquiry'' (

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

Springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...

, 2016)
p. 148

Overview

Anthony Giddens (1982) argues that there is an important difference between the natural and social sciences. In the

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeat ...

, scientists try to understand and theorize about the way the natural world is structured. The understanding is one-way; that is, while we seek to understand the actions of minerals or chemicals, chemicals and minerals don't seek to develop an understanding of us. He refers to this as the "single hermeneutic". (Hermeneutic means interpretation or understanding.) By contrast, the social sciences are engaged in the double hermeneutic. The various social sciences study people and society, although the way they do so is different. Some social sciences such as sociology don't just study what people do, they also study how people understand their world, and how that understanding shapes their practice. Because people can think, make choices, and use new information to revise their understandings (and hence their practice), they can use the knowledge and insights of social science to change their practice. In outlining his notion of the double hermeneutic, Giddens explains that while philosophers and social scientists have often considered the way "in which lay concepts obstinately intrude into the technical discourse of social science," ... "(f)ew have considered the matter the other way around." He explains that "the concepts of the social sciences are not produced about an independently constituted subject-matter, which continues regardless of what these concepts are. The findings of the social sciences very often enter constitutively into the world they describe."Giddens, ''The Constitution of Society'' (

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

Polity A polity is an identifiable political entity – a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources. A polity can be any other group of p ...

, 1984)
p. 20
Philosopher

Dimitri Ginev Dimitri Ginev (born 3 July 1956 in Varna - died 5 June 2021 in Sophia) held the position of Professor of History of Discourses in Cultural Studies at St. Kliment Ohridski University. Ginev specialized in philosophy of science, particularly hermen ...

said that since the 1970s, discussions about double hermeneutics in postempiricist

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

and in

critical theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from s ...

have led to "a tendency to oppose the methodological to the ontological reading of double hermeneutics", the methodological standpoint traditionally understanding double hermeneutics as a ''differentia specifica'' of human-scientific inquiry.

Overview

See also

References

Further reading