ABSTRACT
This chapter intends to show that hermeneutical thinking could provide the philosophical foundation for a formulation of economics that serves as an alternative to current mainstream economics. The key figures in hermeneutics – also known as the philosophy of interpretation – are Dilthey (1883), Heidegger (1927), and Gadamer (1960); depending on the continental traditions of philosophy, these key figures have claimed that hermeneutics is the ontological basis of historical, social, and human sciences, each of which is distinct from the natural sciences. In hermeneutical thinking, ontology explores the meaning, significance, and value of entities as objects of knowledge; it also determines the orientation and perspective of that knowledge. This chapter argues that the best source for hermeneutical economics could be found in the development of Austrian subjectivism, in which the interaction of Austrian philosophy and Austrian economics builds a genuine foundation for the social sciences.
