's History of Hermeneutics demonstrates that "the domain of interpretation" has been universalized, or systematically applied to human and natural sciences·all by way of philosophical epistemology, especially evident in the work of Heidegger (Ferraris, 1996) but also in the social/cultural theory of Jurgen Habermas and Paul Ricoeur (Gardiner, 1992; Bontekoe, 1996; Shafer, 1994; Hirsch, 1967). Indeed, the focus on interpretation is consistent with cross-disciplinary analysis and critique, not only of specific experiences but also of the larger picture or structure of human experience, not least the social and cultural ideologies and assumptions informing such experience. That is perhaps why hermeneutics methods are invoked by social theorists, public administration commentators (e.g., Denhardt & Denhardt, 1979; Haque, 1996), culture critics and critical theorists (Antonio, 1983; Fay, 1987) science sociologists and ethicists (Kuhn, 1962; Shafer, 1994) and philosophers (Alford, 1985; Shafer, 1994; Husserl, 1982).
The types of questions to be answered from the hermeneutics philosophical viewpoint are those that yield answers about meaning and about implications of prevailing belief systems for future public policy and social experience. From a term of Ricoeur's, the "hermeneutics of suspicion" (Shafer, 1994, p. 579), a critical attitude embedded into the research methods of hermeneutics may be inferred. Insights derived from the lessons of found experience interpreted could themselves point in the direction of transformed belief systems. Because the mode of inquiry is critical, analysis and conclusions appear to have a strong normative and ethical component.
The hermeneutics mode of inquiry always begins with some given, historically a text but increasingly as well a set of observable conditions such as the social and cultural environment in which experience or phenomena are to be investigated. What is known or understood is imp...