METHODOLOGY OF PHILOSOPHICAL HERMENEUTICS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to determine the key strategies for applying the methodology of philosophical hermeneutics in social sciences, which is realized in solving of the following tasks: 1)to determine theoretical conditions for the turn of philosophical hermeneutics towards applied social research; 2)to identify key concepts and techniques of philosophical hermeneutics, relevant to the measurement of actual social phenomena; 3) to outline the logic of application of the elements of philosophical hermeneutics within social science. Methodology of the research is formed by methods of immanent critique of philosophical discourse, adapted to the subject horizon of social studies. Scientific originality of the paper is expressed in the following statements: 1) the theoretical conditions for the applied turn of philosophical hermeneutics include the pragmatic critique of ontologization of the hermeneutic circle, that is, the reinterpretation of philosophical hermeneutics contrary to the key guidelines of its founders (M. Heidegger, H.-G. Gadamer); 2) key concepts and techniques of philosophical hermeneutics, relevant to the measurement of actual social phenomena, are the hermeneutic circle and self-understanding, hermeneutical reduction and destruction; 3) the logic of the applied use of the elements of philosophical hermeneutics in the context of social science involves correlation of the structure of the research with the hermeneutic structure of self-understanding, inherent in the subject under investigation. Conclusion: The study of the conditions of the applied turn of philosophical hermeneutics proved the fundamental importance of setting the problem of the synthesis of fundamental and applied science.