Truth and Disclosure in Qualitative Research: Implications of Hermeneutic Realism

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to describe hermeneutic realism as an overarching philosophical commitment for qualitative research and to present its principal implications. Hermeneutic realism, based on the work of Martin Heidegger and other hermeneutic philosophers, emphasizes an expressivist ontology and meaningful human participation, or what might be termed concernful involvement. Concernful involvement allows for the disclosure of truth about aspects of the world, but truth, from this perspective, must be understood as unfolding, multifaceted, and inexhaustible. Hermeneutic realism, as a philosophical basis for qualitative research, offers four general implications concerning: inquiry as a revelatory event, disclosure as significant insight, experience as concernful involvement, and the centrality of temporal-narrative themes. These general implications are connected with specific research practices concerning qualitative researchers’ purposes, roles, framing assumptions, and data collection and analysis activities.