From the hermeneutic tradition of Friedrich Schleiermacher (Hermeneutics and Criticism, 1838), Wilhelm Dilthey (The Rise of Hermeneutics, 1900), and Hans-Georg Gadamer (Truth and Method, 1960).
Reads a document or practice by cycling between its parts and the whole, writing down prior assumptions and testing them, until one reading fits and its uncertainties are named.
When to reach for it
When a contract, memo, transcript, or policy matters, its author's intent is unclear, and a misreading would cost something.
How it runs
- Establish the text's genre, context, and apparent purpose.
- Write down what you already expect it to mean.
- Read the whole once for overall sense.
- Read each part closely and note where expectations fail.
- Revise the reading of the whole, and repeat.
- Name what stays open, and have a second reader compare.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- Hermeneutics and Criticism, lectures, published posthumously, 1838
- The Rise of Hermeneutics, 1900
- Truth and Method, 1960