Skip to main content
Log in

Digital hermeneutics: an outline

  • Original Article
  • Published:
AI & SOCIETY Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to give an outline of digital hermeneutics understood as the encounter between hermeneutics and digital technology, particularly the Internet. In the first part, I want to raise the attention of IT researchers and hermeneuticists to the theoretic and practical relevance of the encounter of their areas of research that are sometimes considered as incompatible to each other. There is still a lot of translation work to be done in order to get these two cultures come closer to and profit from each other. The second part of the paper deals with the foundation of digital hermeneutics on what I call—following Heidegger’s and Vattimo’s paths—digital ontology as opposed to digital metaphysics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arnold M (2003) On the phenomenology of technology: the “Janus-faces” of mobile phones. In Information and Organization 13, pp 231–256. http://www.hps.unimelb.edu.au/about/staff/michael_arnold/Janus_face_of_Mobile_Phones.pdf (visited 11.10.2008)

  • Augustinus A (1998) Confessionum libri tredecim. http://www.ub.uni-freiburg.de/referate/04/august01.htm (visited 13.10.2008)

  • Borgmann A (2000) Holding on to reality. The nature of information at the turn of the millenium. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Bosteels B (2006) Alain Badiou’s theory of the subject: The recommencement of dialectical materialism. In: Žižek S (ed) Lacan. The silent partners. Verso, London, pp 115–168

    Google Scholar 

  • Brigham M, Introna LD (2006) Hospitality, improvisation and Gestell: a phenomenology of mobile information. J Inf Technol 21:140–153

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Capurro R (1990) Ethik und Informatik. Die Herausforderung der Informatik für die praktische Philosophie. Informatik-Spektrum 13:311–320. http://www.capurro.de/antritt.htm (visited 10.10.2008)

  • Capurro R (1992) Hermeneutics and Informatics. In: Floyd C, Züllighoven H, Budde R, Keil-Slavik R (eds) Software development and reality construction. Springer, Berlin, pp 363–375. http://www.capurro.de/floyd.htm (visited 10.10.2008)

  • Capurro R (1995) Leben im Informationszeitalter. Akademie Verlag, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Capurro R (2001) Beiträge zu einer digitalen Ontologie. http://www.capurro.de/digont.htm (visited 10.10.2008)

  • Capurro R (2002) Menschenbilder. Eine Einführung in die philosophische Anthropologie. In: Grimm P, Capurro R (eds) Menschenbilder in den medien—ethische Vorbilder?. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, pp 83–109. http://www.capurro.de/mensch.htm (visited 19.10.2008)

  • Capurro R (2003) Angeletics—a message theory. In: Diebner HH, Ramsay L (eds) Hierarchies of communication. ZKM, Karlsruhe, pp 58–71. http://www.capurro.de/angeletics_zkm.html (visited 19.10.2008)

  • Capurro R (2006a) Towards an ontological foundation of information ethics. Ethics Inf Technol 8(4):157–186. http://www.capurro.de/oxford.html (visited 10.10.08)

  • Capurro R (2006b) Ethik der Informationsgesellschaft. Ein interkultureller Versuch. http://www.capurro.de/parrhesia.html (visited 10.10.2008)

  • Capurro R, Frühbauer J, Hausmanninger T (eds) (2007) Localizing the Internet: ethical aspects in intercultural perspective. ICIE vol 4. Fink, München

    Google Scholar 

  • Dreyfus HL (2001) On the internet. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Eldred M (2001) Draft casting of a digital ontology. http://www.webcom.com/artefact/dgtlon_e.html (visited 12.10.2008)

  • Eldred M (2006) Technology, technique, interplay: questioning Die Frage nach der Technik. http://www.webcom.com/artefact/untplcl/tchniply.html (visited 10.10.2008)

  • Fallman D (2007) Persuade into what? Why human-computer interaction needs a philosophy of technology. In: Y de Kort et al (eds) Persuasive 2007. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 295–306

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Fellmann F (1998) Hermeneutik, Semiotik, Informatik. In: Dölling E (ed) Repräsentation und Interpretation. Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Figal G (2007) Gegenständlichkeit. Das Hermeneutische und die Philosophie. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen

    Google Scholar 

  • Floridi L (1999) Information ethics: on the philosophical foundations of computer ethics. Ethics Inf Technol 1(1): 37–56. http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/~floridi/pdf/ieotfce.pdf (visited 10.10.2008)

  • Floridi L (2006) Information technologies and the tragedy of the Good Will. Ethics Inf Technol 8(4):253–262

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flusser V (1996) Kommunikologie. Bollmann, Mannheim

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault M (1983) Discourse and truth: the problematization of Parrhesia. University of California at Berkeley, October–November 1983. http://foucault.info/documents/parrhesia/ (visited 10.10.2008)

  • Gadamer H-G (1974) Hermeneutik. In: Ritter J (ed) Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie. vol 3. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, pp 1061–1073

    Google Scholar 

  • Gadamer H-G (1975) Wahrheit und Methode. Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik. Mohr, Tübingen

    Google Scholar 

  • Grondin J (1996) Hermeneutik. In: Ueding G (ed) Historisches Wörterbuch der Rhetorik. vol 3. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, pp 1350–1374. http://www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/grondinj/pdf/Grondin_Hermeneutik_und_Rationali.pdf (visited 10.10.2008)

  • Heidegger M (1967) Die Frage nach der Technik (Original from 1953). In: ibid (ed) Vorträge und Aufsätze. Neske: Pfullingen, vol 1, pp 5–36 (English: The Question Concerning Technology and other Essays. Harper and Row, New York 1977)

  • Heidegger M (1976) Sein und Zeit. Tübingen: Niemeyer. “Being and Time” translated by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson, Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1987

  • Hongladarom S, Ess C (2007) Information technology ethics: cultural perspectives. Idea Reference, Hersey

    Google Scholar 

  • Ihde D (1998) Expanding hermeneutics: visualism in science. Northwestern University Press, Evanston

    Google Scholar 

  • Ihde D (2002) Bodies in technology. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis

    Google Scholar 

  • Ihde D (2005) More Material Hermeneutics. In: Yearbook of the institute for advanced studies on science, technology and society. Munich/Vienna: Profil Verlag, pp 341–350. http://www.ifz.tugraz.at/index_en.php/article/articleview/1454/1/58 (visited 12.10.2008)

  • Ihde D (2008) The designer fallacy and technological imagination. In: Vermaas PE, Kroes P, Light A, Moore SA (eds) Philosophy and design. From engineering to architecture. Springer, Berlin, pp 51–59

    Google Scholar 

  • Introna L (2005) Phenomenological approaches to ethics and information technology. In: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-it-phenomenology (visited 07.10.2008)

  • Introna L (2007) Virtual strangers—on the social and ethical conditions of virtual communities. In: Capurro R, Frühbauer J, Hausmanninger T (eds) Localizing the internet: ethical aspects in intercultural perspective. ICIE vol 4. Fink, München, pp 95–108

    Google Scholar 

  • Irrgang B (2005) Posthumanes Menschsein? Künstliche Intelligenz, Cyberspace, Roboter, Cyborgs und Designer-Menschen. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart

    Google Scholar 

  • Irrgang B (2007) Gehirn und leiblicher Geist. Phänomenologisch-hermeneutische Philosophie des Geistes. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart

    Google Scholar 

  • Jullien F (2003) La valeur allusive. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurthen M (1992) Hermeneutische Kognitionswissenschaft. Die Krise der Orthodoxie. Dyre Verlag, Bonn

    Google Scholar 

  • Lessig L (1999) Code and other laws of cyberspace. Perseus Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann N (1987) Soziale Systeme. Grundriß einer allgemeinen Theorie. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main

    Google Scholar 

  • Mallery JC, Hurwitz R, Duffy G (1990) Art. Hermeneutics. In: Shapiro SC (ed) Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence. Wiley, New York, pp 362–376

    Google Scholar 

  • Nietzsche F (1999) Götzen-Dämmerung. In: ibid. Sämtliche Werke. Kritische Studienausgabe, vol 6, pp 55–161

  • Rahner K (1966) Experiment Mensch. Theologisches über die Selbstmanipulation des Menschen. In: Rombach H (ed) Die Frage nach dem Menschen. Alber, Freiburg/Munich, pp 45–69

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramberg B, Gjesdal K (2005) Hermeneutics. In: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hermeneutics (visited 10.10.2008)

  • Rorty R (1989) Contingency, irony, and solidarity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Selinger E (ed) (2006) Postphenomenology: a critical companion to Ihde. State University of New York Press, Albany

    Google Scholar 

  • Sützl W (2007) Emancipación o violencia. Pacifismo estético en Gianni Vattimo. Icaria Editorial, Barcelona

    Google Scholar 

  • Vattimo G (1985) La fine della modernità. Nichilismo ed ermeneutica nella cultura post-moderna, Nichilismo ed edn. Garzanti, Milano

    Google Scholar 

  • Weizenbaum J (1976) Computer power and human reason. From judgement to calculation. Freeman, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Zabala S (2007) Introduction: Gianni Vattimo and Weak Philosophy. In: ibid (ed) Essays in Honour of Gianni Vattimo. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal & Kingston, pp 3–34

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I thank Arun Kumar Tripathi (Dresden University of Technology, Germany) for his commitment to an e-mail dialogue on the subject of this paper and for his invaluable hints to relevant literature.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rafael Capurro.

Additional information

This paper is based on a keynote address to the conference “Thinking Critically: Alternative Perspectives and Methods in Information Studies” organized by the Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 15–17, 2008. A video of the lecture is available at: http://129.89.43.24:8080/ramgen/classes/samore/2008/samore08.rm. The original text is online at: http://www.capurro.de/wisconsin.html. It was published in: Elizabeth Buchanan and Carolyn Hansen (eds.). Proceedings. Thinking Critically: Alternative Methods and Perspectives in Library and Information Studies. Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 2008, p. 190–220. I thank the organizers for their permission to use this text.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Capurro, R. Digital hermeneutics: an outline. AI & Soc 25, 35–42 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-009-0255-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-009-0255-9

Keywords

Navigation