hermeneutic circle
Part-whole understanding cycle
The hermeneutic circle is the idea that understanding a whole requires understanding its parts, but understanding the parts requires understanding the whole.
You can't grasp a sentence without knowing its words, but the words only make sense in context of the sentence.
The concept appears in philosophy, literary theory, and biblical interpretation, describing how meaning emerges through this back-and-forth process: Reading the novel a second time, she understood scenes that had puzzled her before—the hermeneutic circle at work.
Study of subjective experience
- HeideggerExistential ontology's founder
- ontologyStudy of existence's nature
- epistemologyTheory of knowledge
- SchleiermacherProtestant theology reformer
being-in-the-world · Dasein · temporality · existential · methodology
Component-to-complete relationship
- circularityState of being round
- holismWholes trump components
- iterationRepeated procedural pass
- spiralCurve winding around center
reciprocity · feedback · interdependence · revision · recursion · oscillation · entry point · anticipation
Systematic examination of writing
- readingInterpreting written text
- understandingMental comprehension of something
- meaningWhat something signifies
- comprehensionMental understanding of meaning
close reading · commentary · exposition · annotation · translation · deciphering · construal · sense-making
Preformed unfavorable opinion
- traditionCustom passed through generations
- dialogueSpoken exchange between parties
- historicityAuthentic occurrence in time
- playRecreation or staged drama
phenomenology
Study of subjective experience
- HeideggerExistential ontology's founder
- ontologyStudy of existence's nature
- epistemologyTheory of knowledge
Schleiermacher · being-in-the-world · Dasein · temporality · existential · methodology
part-whole
Component-to-complete relationship
- circularityState of being round
- holismWholes trump components
- iterationRepeated procedural pass
spiral · reciprocity · feedback · interdependence · revision · recursion · oscillation · entry point · anticipation · completion
textual analysis
Systematic examination of writing
- readingInterpreting written text
- understandingMental comprehension of something
- meaningWhat something signifies
comprehension · close reading · commentary · exposition · annotation · translation · deciphering · construal · sense-making · literary criticism
prejudice
Preformed unfavorable opinion
- traditionCustom passed through generations
- dialogueSpoken exchange between parties
- historicityAuthentic occurrence in time
play · application · belonging · openness · questioning
- phenomenologyphenomenology, intentionality, bracketing, lived experience, horizon
- HeideggerDasein, being-in-the-world, authenticity, inauthenticity, care
- legal interpretationoriginalism, plain meaning, textualism, textual analysis, legislative intent
- reader responsereader, response, meaning-making, active reading, gaps
circle, interpretation, interpreter, interpretive, interpreting, exegesis, hermeneutic, reinterpretation, exegetical