HERMENUETICAL

PHENOMENOLOGY
 • Hermeneutical
phenomenology is a philosophy
of and a method for interpreting
human experiences as a means
HERMENUETICAL to understand the question of
PHENOMENOLOGY
what it is to be human.
• Hermeneutical phenomenology
is sometimes referred to as
interpretative phenomenology.
 • Thisphilosophy was developed by
Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) as
a continuation and divergence
HERMENUETICAL
PHENOMENOLOGY from phenomenology, the
philosophy developed by his
mentor and colleague, Edmund
Husserl.
• Hermeneutics is the theory and methodology of
interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts,
wisdom literature, and philosophical texts.
• Hermeneutics is more than interpretive principles or
methods used when immediate comprehension fails and
includes the art of understanding and communication.
• This is also the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation,
especially of the Bible or literary texts. The primary need of
Hermeneutics is to determine and understand the meaning of
Biblical text.
• The purpose of Hermeneutics is to bridge the gap between our
minds and the minds of the Biblical writers through a thorough
knowledge of the original languages, ancient history and the
comparison of Scripture with Scripture.
 • In the history of biblical interpretation, four
Four major types
major types of hermeneutics have emerged:
of hermeneutics the literal, moral, allegorical, and anagogical.
 1. Hermeneutics Literal interpretation asserts that a

Hermeneutics biblical text is to be interpreted according to the ―plain

meaning‖ conveyed by its grammatical construction and
Literal historical context. The literal meaning is held to correspond
to the intention of the authors.
 2. Hermeneutics Moral which seeks to
Hermeneutics establish exegetical principles by which
Moral ethical lessons may be drawn from the
various parts of the Bible.
 3. Allegorical Hermeneutics a third type of
hermeneutics, interprets the biblical narratives as
Allegorical having a second level of reference beyond those
Hermeneutics persons, things, and events explicitly mentioned in
the text.
 4. Interpretation Hermeneutics. This
mode of interpretation seeks to explain
Interpretation
biblical events as they relate to or
Hermeneutics prefigure the life to come.
• Phenomenology is the philosophical study of the structures of experience and
consciousness.
• It was founded in the early years of the 20th century by Edmund Husserl and was later
expanded upon by a circle of his followers at the universities of Göttingen and Munich in
Germany.
• The science of phenomena as distinct from that of the nature of being. An approach that
concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience.
• Phenomenology is the study of phenomena : appearances of things, or things as they
appear in our experience, or the ways we experience things, thus the meanings things
have in our experience.
• Phenomenology is concerned about reduction, a way of
bracketing our experience of being in the world so as to
let us encounter the phenomena, presence, and the
being of life in the world itself.
Two main approaches to Phenomenology:
• 1. Descriptive Phenomenology is widely used in social science research as a method to explore and
describe the lived experience of individuals. It is a philosophy and a scientific method and has undertaken
many variations as it has.
• 2. Interpretative Phenomenology is an approach to psychological qualitative research with an idiographic
focus, which means that it aims to offer insights into how a given person, in a given context, makes sense
of a given phenomenon.
• Types of Phenomenology
• 1. Transcendental Constitutive Phenomenology studies how objects are
constituted in transcendental consciousness, setting aside questions of any relation
to the natural world.
• 2. Naturalistic Constitutive Phenomenology (see naturalism) studies how
consciousness constitutes things in the world of nature, assuming with the natural
attitude that consciousness is part of nature.
• 3. Generative Historicist Phenomenology studies how meaning—as found in our
experience—is generated in historical processes of collective experience over time.
• 4. Genetic Phenomenology studies the emergence/genesis of meanings of things
within one's own stream of experience.
• 5. Hermeneutical Phenomenology studies interpretive structures of experience.
This approach was introduced in Martin Heidegger's early work.