The double hermeneutic is the theory, expounded by sociologist

Anthony Giddens Anthony Giddens, Baron Giddens (born 18 January 1938) is an English sociologist who is known for his theory of structuration and his holistic view of modern societies. He is considered to be one of the most prominent modern sociologists and is ...

, that everyday "lay" concepts and those from the

social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...

have a two-way relationship. A common example is the idea of

social class A social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the working class and the Bourgeoisie, capitalist class. Membership of a social class can for exam ...

, 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 the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

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, 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 or empirical 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 ...

, 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'' (

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

, 1984)
p. 20
Philosopher Dimitri Ginev said that since the 1970s, discussions about double hermeneutics in postempiricist

epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...

and in

critical theory Critical theory is a social, historical, and political school of thought and philosophical perspective which centers on analyzing and challenging systemic power relations in society, arguing that knowledge, truth, and social structures are ...

have led to "a tendency to oppose the methodological to the

ontological Ontology is the philosophical study of being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of reality and every ...

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