The Journey of Hermeneutics

A graph showing the mention of the term hermeneutics in texts over time.

Hermeneutics refers to the study of interpretation. The word’s journey started with an Anatolian origin as a technical expression through Greek hermēneuō (to interpret) to hermeneutes (interpreter) to hermeneutikos (of or for interpreting). Another etymology of the term was established by Martin Heidegger that traces its origin to Greek hermeneuein (v.), which is related to hermeneus (n.), which refers to Hermes, the divine messenger. The myth of Hermes suggests a path of mediation that is inherent to the term—a message, a messenger, and the audience.

Due to this essential feature of an interpretative activity, hermeneutics is an important part of many disciplines that deal with human interaction, human relations, or human actions—such as rhetoric, philosophy, theology, translation, or communication—and therefore, require interpretation. In rhetoric, Aristotle’s Peri Hermeneias (On Interpretation) is considered the earliest surviving work that unpacks the relationship between language and logic, which laid the groundwork for future theories of interpretation and semiotics. Heidegger and Gadamer are among other key figures who have extensively used hermeneutics in the fields of philosophy and education to establish how interpretive activities work and shape our epistemology. Modern Western rhetoric, informed by the conversations in formalism and linguistics, considers the interpretative ability and activity of language in meaning-making as one essential feature of the discipline. Burke, Richards, Lunsford, Ratcliffe, and Powell among others have defined rhetoric based on context and the hermeneutic agency of language.

The term has been revived in the past 40 years. As an after-effect of globalization, the gargantuan growth of cross-cultural communication, and therefore, the possibility of misunderstanding, indicates the term hermeneutics is here to stay. (270) [SN–5]