Contributions to Hermeneutics Volume 4 Series editors Jeffery Malpas, University of Tasmania, Tasmania, Australia Claude Romano, Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris, France Editorial board Jean Grondin, University of Montréal, Canada Robert Dostal, Bryn Mawr College, USA Andrew Bowie, Royal Holloway, UK Françoise Dastur, Nice, France Kevin Hart, University of Virginia, USA David Tracy, University of Chicago, USA Jean-Claude Gens, University of Bourgogne, France Richard Kearney, Boston College, USA Gianni Vattimo, University of Turin, Italy Carmine di Martino, University of Milan, Italy Luis Umbellino, University of Coimbra, Portugal Kwok-Ying Lau, Chinese University of Hong Kong, HK Marc-Antoine Vallée, Fonds Ricoeur, Paris, France Gonçalo Marcelo, University of Lisbon, Portugal Csaba Olay, University of Budapest, Hungary Patricio Mena-Malet, University Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, Chile Andrea Bellantone, Catholic Institute of Toulouse, France Hans-Helmuth Gander, University of Freiburg, Germany Gaetano Chiurazzi, University of Turin, Italy Anibal Fornari, Catholic University of Santa Fe, Argentina Hermeneutics is one of the main traditions within recent and contemporary European philosophy, and yet, as a distinctive mode of philosophising, it has often received much less attention than other similar traditions such as phenomenology, deconstruction or even critical theory. This series aims to rectify this relative neglect and to reaffi rm the character of hermeneutics as a cohesive, distinctive, and rigorous stream within contemporary philosophy. The series will encourage works that focus on the history of hermeneutics prior to the twentieth century, that take up fi gures from the classical twentieth-century hermeneutic canon (including Heidegger, Gadamer, and Ricoeur, but also such as Strauss, Pareyson, Taylor and Rorty), that engage with key hermeneutic questions and themes (especially those relating to language, history, aesthetics, and truth), that explore the cross-cultural relevance and spread of hermeneutic concerns, and that also address hermeneutics in its interconnection with, and involvement in, other disciplines from architecture to theology. A key task of the series will be to bring into English the work of hermeneutic scholars working outside of the English-speaking world, while also demonstrating the relevance of hermeneutics to key contemporary debates. Since hermeneutics can itself be seen to stand between, and often to overlap with, many different contemporary philosophical traditions, the series will also aim at stimulating and supporting philosophical dialogue through hermeneutical engagement. Contributions to Hermeneutics aims to draw together the diverse fi eld of contemporary philosophical hermeneutics through a series of volumes that will give an increased focus to hermeneutics as a discipline while also refl ecting the interdisciplinary and truly international scope of hermeneutic inquiry. The series will encourage works that focus on both contemporary hermeneutics as well as its history, on specifi c hermeneutic themes and areas of inquiry (including theological and religious hermeneutics), and on hermeneutic dialogue across cultures and disciplines.All books to be published in this Series will be fully peer-reviewed before fi nal acceptance. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13358 Dimitri Ginev Hermeneutic Realism Reality Within Scientifi c Inquiry Dimitri Ginev Department of Philosophy University of Sofi a Sofi a , Bulgaria ISSN 2509-6087 ISSN 2509-6095 (electronic) Contributions to Hermeneutics ISBN 978-3-319-39287-5 ISBN 978-3-319-39289-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-39289-9 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016942044 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland To all who sacrifi ce their lives to end any form of animals’ abuse Pref ace Recent developments in the realism debate are by and large characterized by a shift from the subject-object model of thinking to a paradigm informed by the primacy of the interpretive constitution of meaning. Putting the constitution of meaning fi rst seriously revises standard realism but does not imply antirealism. This book is grounded on the premise that the facticity of scientifi c inquiry is that kind of inter- pretive constitution of meaning which enables one to develop the position of herme- neutic realism. Actually, the book defends a stronger thesis: It is diffi cult to imagine a successful version of realism that does not include an interpretive theory of scien- tifi c inquiry. The facticity of scientifi c inquiry brings to the fore that mode of reali- ty’s being which affords the formulation and the advocacy of hermeneutic realism. I have organized Hermeneutic Realism: Reality Within Scientifi c Inquiry in four chapters. Each chapter is based on properly specifi ed tenets of hermeneutic phe- nomenology. The Introductory Chapter discusses the unity of meaningful articula- tion and objectifi cation in the scientifi c disclosing of reality. In encroaching on a historical excursus, chapter “ The Production of Objectifi ed Factuality Within the Facticity of Scientifi c Inquiry ” resumes the Fleckian strategy of asking about the genealogy of scientifi c facts. My focus here is on a hermeneutic recasting of princi- pal issues in the realism debate. Chapter “ Meaningful Articulation and Objectifi cation of Reality in Scientifi c Inquiry ” addresses the interpretive fore-structuring of objec- tifi ed factuality within the facticity of inquiry, thereby adumbrating a program for a philosophy of science pertinent to hermeneutic realism. The whole study is guided by the claim that the articulation of meaning and the procedural objectifi cation within the facticity of inquiry manage to “textualize” the domains of reality dis- closed by scientifi c practices. The prominent role that the concepts of “textualizing” and “text” play in the study is summarized and additionally analyzed in the Concluding Chapter. In the name of honest advertising, I should state my location on the map of the complicated area abandoned by both philosophy of science and philosophical hermeneutics . I feel most at home in the tradition of the hermeneutics of scientifi c research as it is typically represented by the studies of Joseph Kockelmans and Patrick Heelan . Belonging to this tradition, I am dissatisfi ed with the objectivist vii viii Preface portrayal of science depicted both in philosophical hermeneutics and the analytical tradition. At the same time, my roots are in a kind of strongly internalist philosophy of science, and I would identify myself as a convinced opponent of any form of external criticism of science. It is my contention that only a kind of hermeneutic philosophy can abolish the wrong metaphysical identifi cation of science with epis- temological objectivism , thereby developing a consistent advocacy for science’s intrinsic interpretivism. This philosophy effects an internal criticism that differs on principle from the reconstructive-explicative-normative criticism put forward by the analytic tradition. The interpretive philosopher of science tries to reactualize forgotten or ignored possibilities for doing research. Her internal criticism should take the form of “dialogical participation” in an ongoing process of inquiry – a par- ticipation that resembles the activity of the art critic as an irreplaceable fi gure of artistic life at large. This kind of criticism is intimately related to an essential aspect of Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics , scrutinized in Truth and Method under the heading of application. “Applying the text to be understood” unveils new pos- sibilities in the interpreter’s present situation. Application as the third element – along with understanding and interpretation – is the source of a possible criticism in one’s hermeneutic situation. Application is critical because it creatively transforms the meaning understood and interpreted. For Gadamer , understanding and interpret- ing the meaning of a text in a new and different way in every concrete situation is application. The demand of “redefi ning the hermeneutics of the human sciences in terms of legal and theological hermeneutics” is subjected to the aim of integrating application in human-scientifi c interpretation (Gadamer 1989,