Interpretive Hermeneutic Phenomenology: Clarifying Understanding

Abstract

The philosophical orientation of Gadamerian hermeneutic phenomenology is explored in this paper. Gadamer offers a hermeneutics of the humanities that differs significantly from models of the human sciences historically rooted in scientific methodologies. In particular, Gadamer proposes that understanding is first a mode of being before it is a mode of knowing; what this effectively offers is an alternative to the traditional way of understanding in the human sciences. This paper details why the work of hermeneutics is not to develop a procedure for understanding, but to clarify the conditions of understanding. In this explication, the author examines the hermeneutic experience and, in the process, relates it to both the practical and the historical horizons of the lifeworld of health professionals, particularly nurses.

The experience of stigma in inflammatory bowel disease: An interpretive (hermeneutic) phenomenological study

“…Co-constitution at interview and during team analysis between all authors reflects the normal "to-ing and fro-ing" of dialogue; these different agendas and stories are then combined with relevant literature so that a unified, agreed understanding emerges. Although findings and discussion from hermeneutic studies may be presented simultaneously (Lofland, Snow, Anderson, & Lofland, 2005;Smythe et al, 2008) reflecting the co-constitutive nature of the research (Holroyd, 2007), here these are presented sequentially for clarity.…”

“…The study was guided by Heidegger's interpretive (hermeneutic) phenomenology. Hermeneutics is the "study and interpretation of human behaviour" (Collins 2017) and as evidenced by leading scholars in the field of Heideggerian phenomenology, the terms "hermeneutic" and "interpretation" are interchangeable (Crist & Tanner, 2003;Crowther, Smythe, & Spence, 2014;Holroyd, 2007;Horrigan-Kelly, Millar, & Dowling, 2016;Kay, 2017;Lopez & Willis, 2004). Heidegger's philosophy asserts that humans are inseparable from their world: being human is "being there" (Dasein) in the world (Heidegger, 1962).…”

“…Language is central to human expression of experience (Heidegger, 1971;Holroyd, 2007) and with interpretive phenomenology, enables exploration of lived experience. The researcher also brings their own being-in-the-word knowledge to co-construct, through language with participants, a new interpretation of events (Crowther et al, 2016;Ironside et al, 2003).…”

Citizens as Sense-Makers: Towards a Deeper Appreciation of Citizens’ Understandings of Democratic Politics

“…We thus come to our understandings from presuppositions -already existing ways of perceiving by which we come to interpretation. The presuppositions by which we approach a phenomenon are the product of our situatedness in the world (Weinsheimer, 1985in McManus Holroyd, 2007. Gadamer, calling such presuppositions prejudices, sees them as 'the soil where our judgment is grown' (Gadamer, 1978in Dobrosavljev, 2002.…”

Exploring Cultural Issues for Constellation Work in South Africa

“…The phenomenological paradigm includes the epistemological tradition of constructivism and interpretive hermeneutics (McManus Holroyd, 2007), which reflects the complexity and layered multiple realities of both the researcher and the researched (Becvar & Becvar, 2003) and is created through social interaction (Berger & Luckmann, 2000). This research is described as relativist, transactional and subjectivist (Guba & Lincoln, 1998), aiming at understanding the emic perspectives of CWFs by uncovering contextual variables based in the experiences of the researched (AlimoMetcalfe & Alban-Metcalfe, 2001).…”