View Full Version : Hermeneutics

04-20-2013, 05:56 PM
Does anyone know about the scientific method of Hermeneutics?

04-20-2013, 08:17 PM
Yes. But I would call it a pre- scientific method.

04-20-2013, 10:40 PM
When I was in Seminary taking classes on this, they called it a scientific method. There are two schools of thought.

1. The Orthodox School

2. The Secular School

04-21-2013, 10:00 AM
Hermeneutics is generally the art of textual interpretation.

Scientific method consists of observation and description of data, formulating a hypothesis to explain that data, predicting from that the existence of other data, testing the hypothesis. Early science believed induction could prove things, but since Hume that has been abandoned as impossible for falsification (see especially Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery,).

Are we talking applying hermeneutics to science or science to hermeneutics?

04-21-2013, 11:11 AM
Science grew out of Hermetic traditions- which were half "science" and half mystical / spiritual. It really wasn't until the early 20th century that science completely divorced itself from its mystical origins. Sir Issac Newton was both a scientist and alchemist- perhaps even an occultist. Some people claim that the more famous Church prosecutions of the early scientists (Galileo and Giordano Bruno for example) were directly related to not their scientific studies, but to their links to the ancient Hermetic schools. In fact the Church was very much part of the push to divorce science from the mystical, strangely enough.

A good book on the topic is The Forbidden Universe- by the same people who wrote Holy Blood Holy Grail.

04-21-2013, 12:34 PM
OK, but hermetics (from Medieval Latin hermēticus belonging to Hermes Trismegistus , traditionally the inventor of a magic seal) and hermeneutics (hermēneus interpreter) are different things. (dictionary.com)

04-26-2013, 12:48 PM
Sorry, I have not gotten back about this. We have been having state mandated testing at my school this week so I have had no time to talk on this forum. Chris your right it is about textual interpretation. Someone on another post asked me about why Christianity is so divided. One of the reasons is that a lot of Christians do not use Hermeneutics in their interpretation of the Bible.