The Contribution of Philosophical Hermeneutics to the Debate

Abstract

Due to the context in which they institutionally emerged, social sciences have been strongly influenced by philosophy and natural sciences. Therefore, it is not surprising that all their founding fathers had adhered to the methodological discourse of positivism. Facing this fact, the author proposes to see the emergence of hermeneutics in the social analysis not as antagonistic to the until then prevailing vision, but as the starting point of a «harsh but constructive dialogue» within social sciences, which still remains and serves to enrich the attitude of the scientific approach to the knowledge of these disciplines.