Hermeneutics and Social Science

asked to describe from my own point of view the role and relevance of hermeneutics for the problem of society and social life. I shall begin with a consideration of the conditions and the historical constellation under which the social sciences in our epoch are organized and working. In our century, particularly in the second half of our century, the social sciences have been given a special challenge. When one compares the impact of both philosophy (notably British Empiricism and German Idealism) and the social sciences in the same epoch, one is forced to say that the influence of the former was extremely weak. Of course, there was the development of theoretical economics and the first steps toward a thematization of society as burgerliche Gesellschaft. In general, however, this theoretical work did not have much influence upon the practical organization of our society. The basis of our social life in the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century had been sustained by the Christian tradition, its secularization and the consequent secular formation of society. However, by the middle of our century, the breakdown of these traditions caused by the two wars and the connected shift in the balance of power and the political equilibrium fostered a new desire and inner longing in our society to find in science a substitute for lost orientations a very dangerous situation. While the serious scientist knows the restrictive conditions of his thematization of social appearances and givens, the makers of public opinion can distort the real work of scientists in view of the inner needs and