Ricoeur's Theory of Interpretation: An Instrument for Data Interpretation in Hermeneutic Phenomenology

Heidegger's hermeneutic phenomenology, although providing an appropriate philosophical foundation for research in the social sciences that seeks to investigate the meaning of lived experience, does not provide clarity of process, making it difficult to assign the degree of rigor to the work dem...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of qualitative methods 2009-12, Vol.8 (4), p.1-15
Main Authors: Tan, Heather, Wilson, Anne, Olver, Ian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Data analysis
Exegesis & hermeneutics
Hermeneutics
Meaning
Phenomenology
Philosophy
Positivism
Ricoeur, Paul
Social research
Social sciences
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Summary:Heidegger's hermeneutic phenomenology, although providing an appropriate philosophical foundation for research in the social sciences that seeks to investigate the meaning of lived experience, does not provide clarity of process, making it difficult to assign the degree of rigor to the work demanded in an era dominated by the positivist paradigm. Ricoeur (1981) further developed both Heidegger's and Gadamer's ideas, in the areas of method and interpretation of hermeneutic phenomenological research, in a direction that has addressed this difficulty. In this article the authors outline Ricoeur's theory, including three levels of data analysis, describe its application to the interpretation of data, and discuss two apparent contradictions in his theory. Ricoeur's theory of interpretation, as a tool for the interpretation of data in studies whose philosophical underpinning is hermeneutic phenomenology, deserves consideration by human sciences researchers who seek to provide a rigorous foundation for their work.
ISSN:1609-4069
1609-4069
DOI:10.1177/160940690900800401