The hermeneutic circle serves as a standard argument for all those who raise a claim to the autonomy of the human sciences. The proponents of an alternative methodology for the human sciences present the hermeneutic circle either as an ontological problem or as a logical problem. However, it is possible to assert that until now it has not been possible to show that the hermeneutic circle constitutes an ontological or a logical problem. Rather, everything indicates that it describes an empirical phenomenon, which can be studied within the framework of psycholinguistics and other empirical disciplines. It is thus not capable of serving as a legitimating argument for the separation between the natural and the human sciences and therefore cannot lend any support to the claim for autonomy of the social sciences and the humanities.
Hermeneutics; Understanding; Naturalism; Methodology of social sciences