ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this chapter is to examine the extent to which Pierre Bourdieu may be described as a ‘hermeneutic sociologist’. As demonstrated in the following analysis, Bourdieu draws upon the intellectual tradition commonly known as ‘hermeneutics’.1 Here, ‘hermeneutics’ is conceived of as a methodological approach concerned, above all, with the interpretive facets of human existence. As is widely acknowledged, the history of hermeneutics can be traced back to ancient Greek philosophy. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, it established itself as an influential field of biblical studies, before being broad - ened to include the textual exploration of classic cultures and ancient civilisations. With the arrival of German romanticism and idealism, hermeneutics entered a new period, in which it was converted into an increasingly philo - sophical endeavour. In this context, the narrow preoccupation with the reading of texts was gradually replaced by the wide-ranging engagement with the speciesconstitutive status of symbolic forms – especially with regard to communication, understanding and language. In the modern era, hermeneutics designates an essential reference point in the humanities and social sciences – primarily, in continental European and Anglo-Saxon currents of critical enquiry. Among the most prominent modern scholars associated with hermeneutics are
Friedrich D. E. Schleiermacher (1768-1834), Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911), Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) and Paul Ricœur (1913-2005). Instead of relegating it to the past, however, it is vital to recog nise that hermeneutics continues to play a pivotal role in the writings of major contemporary thinkers. Noteworthy in this respect are continental European scholars such as Karl-Otto Apel (1922-), Jürgen Habermas (1929-) and Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), as well as Anglo-Saxon scholars such as Donald H. Davidson (1917-2003), Richard Rorty (1931-2007), John McDowell (1942-) and Judith Butler (1956-). Far from being reducible to a merely philosophical school of thought, hermeneutics has had a major impact upon the development of socialscientific disciplines – particularly sociology, anthropology and psychology. In sociology, its influence manifests itself, most clearly, in concept ual and empirical frameworks focusing on the socio-ontological centrality of everyday life – that is, in interpretive sociology, phenomenological sociology, dramaturgical sociology, symbolic-interactionist sociology, micro-sociology and ethnomethodology.
