ABSTRACT
Interpretative sociology owes hermeneutics the clarification of the concept of 'meaning' as the intentional, teleological character of action and of the situational determination of its interpretation; 'data' are seen in a historical context that refers to the self-understanding of social groups which itself is determined by tradition. Hermeneutical theory uses the methodological device of the hermeneutical circle in which a text is brought to the understanding through the reciprocal interpretation of a whole and its constituent elements. The 'hermeneutic circle' hermeneutic philosophy has evidenced envelops the subject of interpretation as well and thereby destroys the objectivist self-conception of the hermeneutical sciences by pointing to the role of the subject's historically. Ultimately, the possibility of critical hermeneutics depends on the framework that Habermas is attempting to construct out of a materialist theory of society and of social evolution in conjunction with a theory of ordinary language.
