On the hermeneutical nature of modern natural science

Abstract

An effort is made in this essay to show the intrinsic hermeneutic nature of the natural sciences by means of a critical reflection on data taken from the history of classical mechanics and astronomy. The events which eventually would lead to the origin of Newton’s mechanics are critically analyzed, with the aim of showing that and in what sense the natural sciences are essentially interpretive enterprises. In my book, Ideas for a Hermeneutic Phenomenology of the Natural Sciences, I have explained that, why, and in what sense in my view the natural sciences are inherently hermeneutic enterprises, and that the scientists in their work as scientists give us “legitimate” interpretations of what is. I have also made clear that, and in what sense, these interpretations can be called true in that they indeed make claims about what is; but this is to be understood constantly under the assumptions or prejudgments that the scientists must make to be able to do their work. This is why scientific claims do not reveal the all- encompassing, exhaustive, and definitive truth of what is.