What Kind of Problem is the Hermeneutic Circle?

Abstract

The hermeneutic circle serves as a standard argument for all those who raise a claim to the autonomy of the human sciences. The proponents of an alternative methodology for the human sciences present the hermeneutic circle either as an ontological problem or as a specific methodological problem in the social sciences and the humanities. In this paper the soundness of this argument is checked. It starts with listing and shortly sketching out three variations of the problem. It then critically discusses these and concludes that the hermeneutic circle is an empirical phenomenon rather than a methodological problem.