ABSTRACT

The Introduction formulates the tenets of the hermeneutic theory of social practices, which is developed in the rest of the book. This introductory chapter attends to the hermeneutic circles which distinguish the ontological status of interrelated practices. The author begins to explore the implications of the view that the crucial turning point – supposedly legitimizing the autonomy of practice theory – takes place not in the passage from actions guided by strongly individual intentions, reasons, and motives to actions/activities of group agents relying on collectively accepted conceptual presuppositions. The turning point must be sought in the passage from what human agency strongly determines to the independent existence of interrelated practices that – by forming ensembles – reveal authentic cultural meanings. The guiding motif of the whole study presented in this book is that interrelated practices – or better yet, the interrelatedness of practices – constitute(s) something essentially different from the factual reality of inter-subjectively coordinated activities performed for socially relevant reasons. It is not the increasing complexity of together-hanging, goal-oriented, actions and activities that – by producing emergent properties – releases the autonomous reality of practices. The author suggests that the hermeneutic theory of practices should be developed as a non-normative and non-naturalistic theory that approaches social normativity in its ongoing articulation.