Abstract
This paper continues the hermeneutic-phenomenological investigation of natural science, in which understanding plays a role comparable to creative construction (see ‘Hermeneutics as an Approach to Science: Part I’ in Science & Education 2(1)). The first issue treated is that of language: Is the language of science part of the equipment of the scientist, the subject, or part of the object itself — nature already linguistically encased? This issue, arising from the so-called argument of ‘the double hermeneutic’, relates the general question of the role of the subject in natural science to the role of interpretation. Examples of major interpretative developments in physics are discussed. The inquiry suggests that the role of interpretation and hermeneutics is tied to the educative or ‘study-mode’ of science; and that this mode can, apparently, be found at all levels and stages of science. The nature of this interpretive mode, and its relation to the creative mode, is then analyzed on the model of Gadamer's description of the interpretation of art.
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Research for this paper was carried out, in part, under a CUNY Scholar Incentive Award. A version of the paper was read to the Philosophy Department, University of Auckland, in October 1992.
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Eger, M. Hermeneutics as an approach to science: Part II. Sci Educ 2, 303–328 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00488169
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00488169