Hermeneutic Inquiry

The English word hermeneutics is derived from the ancient Greek hermeneutike, meaning interpretation. First used by Plato (427–347 BCE) in the Politicus, it was usually linked with another word, mantike, meaning divination. These words were linked because an act of interpretation was regarded as necessary for translating divine messages from oracles and omens. Insofar as such messages were usually mysterious, they required intermediary interpretation to be rendered understandable. The basic assumption, then, of all hermeneutic endeavor is that there is always a difference between what is said (the surface phenomenon of language) and what is meant (the fuller range of possible meanings contained within the surface phenomenon). Because all educational practices, including curriculum, are mediated through language, they are subject to interpretation.

But what does it mean to interpret? This entry examines how that question has been answered historically in the Western tradition, from the classical age through to the contemporary situation. [Page 433]Hermeneutics always stands in tension, often conflict, with the desire to secure and fix meaning once and for all. The aim of hermeneutics, however, is never simply to spin one interpretation after another in an endless play of possibilities. Instead, the purpose is to lift that burdensomeness of events, texts, and sayings that pertains when the original question that called them into being has been forgotten, rendering present practices as alienating and estranging. Contemporary herme-neutics operates largely in the shadow of German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002) who suggested that creative interpretation begins with a query: What is the question for which this (event, text, saying) is the answer? Recovering the originating question in turn enables a reconsideration of whether conventional responses to it are currently relevant. The purpose is never to dismiss convention, or orthodoxy, but to ask for their capacity to sustain things in the present in such a way that allows human life to go on, creatively. The Greek god from which the word hermeneutike received its character was Hermes, known for eternal youthfulness. Therefore, hermeneutics is particularly relevant to education and curriculum studies through its capacity to protect the conditions for young people being able to live and learn in an atmosphere of creative vitality.