The Hermeneutics in Real Life project is open to anyone interested in the application of hermeneutics. The project includes online resources and a monthly, hour long, online discussion on topics applying hermeneutics to various areas of real life.

While hosted by Ricoeur scholars, the invitation to participate is extended to the entire hermeneutics community, including those new to the field.

Hermeneutic Themes: Viewed Across Different Areas of Practice

The goal is one of seeking to understand, which includes:

• the concerns of others

• the role of narratives in fashioning and relating values and experience

• the role of translation between individuals; between actors in a field; across fields

• what is required in communicating with and listening to others

• how to negotiate across values

• how to recognize and address what is not being considered or what has not been considered in the past

• the importance of dialogue

• the importance of recognition

• how to question assumptions

• how to facilitate dialogue that can lead to constructive action

• how to enhance human activity, including meaningful work, in order to increase human capability and the opportunity to flourish

• How to enhance human activity, including work, as meaning-full and so to increase human capability and the opportunity to flourish

Background Themes

• Hermeneutics is not just of theoretical interest but has real world application.

• The vitality of hermeneutics needs defending and advancing on its own merits and in light of challenges to its image in popular consumption and broader trends toward quantitative analysis;

• The monthly online discussions should be useful for those at the intersection of hermeneutics and practical application, including:

  • academic scholars thinking about and working on hermeneutic application;

  • junior scholars seeking academic appointments that bridge disciplines to practical arenas;

  • those in practice wanting to consider the use of hermeneutics in their work;

  • those with hermeneutics interests in transition between employment in academics and in the real world.

• The project offers a way to bring more people into hermeneutics (and studies of Ricoeur, Gadamer, etc.) by showing its real world (and academic) significance. 

• One goal will be to translate the hermeneutic arena to be more accessible for a broader audience.