Verstehen and Erklären: Hermeneutics in the Social Sciences

Abstract

The development of Western scientific thought is based on a powerful apparatus of paradigms capable of describing the world and operating methodological strategies to investigate it. Among them, two forms stand out that have had an impact on the development of the social sciences: Erklären, as an expression of structured thought, which is a deductive and inductive way of approaching scientific research; Verstehen, as an expression of the interpretive and comprehensive modes that have given rise to both qualitative methodologies as well as approaches to the hermeneutic horizon. The study of both paradigms makes it possible to
attend to the differences between the great currents of sociology and, in addition, unravels again the center of the discussions on the method in the social sciences.