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Exhausted PhD students: can anyone explain hermeneutics (in the sense of qualitative research) to me?

2 replies

BreastmilkDoesAFabLatte · 11/07/2010 15:35

Anyone? I've been up all night with DD for the past week and can barely see straight, and have got to discuss hermeneutics as a philosophical foundation of research with my supervisor next week.

TIA

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Jaybird37 · 12/07/2010 10:52

While since I studied this, but my memory is that hermeneutics is basically linked to tradition, particularly tradition within a particularly field or profession. It means that words come to stand for different, complicated meanings.

So, jam means sticky, sweet fruity stuff you put on bread to me.

For a jazz musician it means a method of improvisational group playing.

For my teenagers it means calm down, relax, etc.

None of us think twice about these layers of meaning. It is immediately obvious to us and to people who share our background and tradition what we mean.

In law, lots of words have a legal meaning completely different to the ordinary meaning in the English language. Lawyers recognise these words stand for layers of definition and refinement within case law. Learning these specific meanings is part of your training for a specific profession.

I am not sure how it works within other areas of research, but basically think of it as a way of using jargon as shortcut to expressing complex ideas which your particular audience will understand, but which have built up over years.

Hope that helps.

BreastmilkDoesAFabLatte · 13/07/2010 22:58

Thanks. That helps...

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