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Hermenuetical circle / Hermeneutical Cirle: How is the whole more than the sum of the parts?
Hermeneutical Cirle: How is the whole more than the sum of the parts?
Topic: Hermenuetical circle
by Siena, 2020 Cohort
One’s understanding of a book as a whole is reached by reading each of its chapters. At the same time, one’s understanding of each of the chapters is informed by your understanding of the book as a whole. When embarking on a book, in not knowing its full content yet, you tend to have a sketched conception of the book as a whole; pre-projected notions of its plotline, tone or themes. This conception also comes coupled with your own broader personal experiences and mental model. This array of presuppositions inform how you interpret each of the chapters. In turn, this understanding of the book as a whole, and perhaps of your own life experiences, continually evolves as you read more and more of its chapters. This continually interlinked process of interpretation is known as the hermeneutical circle or cycle, whereby the interpretation of the whole is influenced by the understanding of the parts and vice versa.
The hermeneutical cycle is a subset of hermeneutics- the study of interpretation. It is useful in approaching situations of complexity or uncertainty for the attention it draws to the inevitable role of presuppositions and context in deriving meaning. It explains the manner in which you make projections when you only know a few of the parts of the
It also suggests that one will often draw off tradition in instances of complexity. Hermeneutical scholars such as Heidegger and Gadamer perceive tradition to be a good thing, countering the perception that tradition is the enemy to critical thinking. Tradition, while one does not want to be rigidly locked within it, nor use it as an unchallenged justification for your approach, does provide necessary tools of understanding drawn from past experience.
While traditionally hermeneutics and the hermeneutical cycle have primarily been concerned with textual interpretation- particularly of literature, theological scriptures and legal jurisprudence- arguably this process of understanding can be applied much more broadly. For example, in systems thinking, the hermeneutical cycle may be applied to ensure we do not lose track of our understanding of the ‘whole’ system while focusing on the individual parts. It can be applied to understanding the relationship between data and theories in the same way that it can be to the relationship between texts and
In this way, the hermeneutical cycle is not a tool or a model in and of itself for tackling complexity. Rather, it has an importance in the processes of understanding, collaboration and dialogues around complex problem solving. It speaks of true understanding as the ‘fusion of horizons’; integrating what is unfamiliar to us into our own familiar context, in turn, broadening our mind. By highlighting that all understanding is informed by context, the hermeneutical cycle can help us to be more aware of the assumptions we are bringing, for example in situations of collaborating with others from different disciplinary backgrounds. It also can help to ensure that we allow our understanding of the whole to be dynamic and holistic.
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One’s understanding of a book as a whole is reached by reading each of its chapters. At the same time, one’s understanding of each of the chapters is informed by your understanding of the book as a whole. When embarking on a book, in not knowing its full content yet, you tend to have a sketched conception of the book as a whole; pre-projected notions of its plotline, tone or themes. This conception also comes coupled with your own broader personal experiences and mental model. This array of presuppositions inform how you interpret each of the chapters. In turn, this understanding of the book as a whole, and perhaps of your own life experiences, continually evolves as you read more and more of its chapters. This continually interlinked process of interpretation is known as the hermeneutical circle or cycle, whereby the interpretation of the whole is influenced by the understanding of the parts and vice versa.
The hermeneutical cycle is a subset of hermeneutics- the study of interpretation. It is useful in approaching situations of complexity or uncertainty for the attention it draws to the inevitable role of presuppositions and context in deriving meaning. It explains the manner in which you make projections when you only know a few of the parts of the
It also suggests that one will often draw off tradition in instances of complexity. Hermeneutical scholars such as Heidegger and Gadamer perceive tradition to be a good thing, countering the perception that tradition is the enemy to critical thinking. Tradition, while one does not want to be rigidly locked within it, nor use it as an unchallenged justification for your approach, does provide necessary tools of understanding drawn from past experience.
While traditionally hermeneutics and the hermeneutical cycle have primarily been concerned with textual interpretation- particularly of literature, theological scriptures and legal jurisprudence- arguably this process of understanding can be applied much more broadly. For example, in systems thinking, the hermeneutical cycle may be applied to ensure we do not lose track of our understanding of the ‘whole’ system while focusing on the individual parts. It can be applied to understanding the relationship between data and theories in the same way that it can be to the relationship between texts and
In this way, the hermeneutical cycle is not a tool or a model in and of itself for tackling complexity. Rather, it has an importance in the processes of understanding, collaboration and dialogues around complex problem solving. It speaks of true understanding as the ‘fusion of horizons’; integrating what is unfamiliar to us into our own familiar context, in turn, broadening our mind. By highlighting that all understanding is informed by context, the hermeneutical cycle can help us to be more aware of the assumptions we are bringing, for example in situations of collaborating with others from different disciplinary backgrounds. It also can help to ensure that we allow our understanding of the whole to be dynamic and holistic.