POS Hermeneutics

Question 1

Hermeneutics in greek

Answer 1

“interpreter” which means the interpretation of intentions.

It looks at the intentions of individuals to gain understanding of their behavior.

Question 2

Why individualism in Hermeneutics?

Answer 2

• players are seen to be identical

- individual level of rational behavioral choices

Question 3

Why understanding in Hermeneutics?

Answer 3

• about developing appreciation for the social world, meaning is created through interpersonal interactions and social relations
• appreciation does not extend to other similar situations and is not about finding a general law for all situations together

Question 4

Explaining

Answer 4

• researcher looks at the problems in 3rd person
• explanational theories are part of behaviorism which states that only the consequences and causes of individual behavior are important in an explanation (more holism than individualism)

Question 5

Understanding

Answer 5

• research takes on a first-person perspective

- understanding theories are often part of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the interpretation of intentions and actions

Question 6

Three layers of understanding

Answer 6

1. symbolic understanding
2. understanding of the meaning
3. motive

Question 7

1. symbolic understanding

Answer 7

symbols constitute the first layer of understanding. These give hints about the interactions of the actions made by the people

Question 8

2. understanding of the meaning

Answer 8

• combine all symbols and form an overview

Question 9

3. motive

Answer 9

• the last layer tries to get an understanding of the motives and intentions of the people conduction the actions.

Question 10

Ontological hermeneutics

Answer 10

• strong form of hermeneutics (Heidegger)
• from the moment that a baby is born, it starts to interpret the world around him.
• Hermeneutics is an ontological condition

Question 11

Epistemological hermeneutics

Answer 11

• weaker form of hermeneutics (Betti)
• Q: How do we learn about our environment?
• > by interpreting values and symbols
• we should not interpret the most fundamental circumstances and issues of humanity.
• hermeneutics is a tool to understand things

Question 12

sense-making

Answer 12

• give meaning to the situations

- situation is given and we give meaning to it

Question 13

enacting

Answer 13

• the way you relate to the social environment around you

- you interpret the world and the world interprets you

Question 14

sense-making more in depth

Answer 14

• looks at human activity as an ongoing process of input and output and you use subjective facts and make them objective
• subjects develop an individual understanding
• under normal conditions, understanding is continuously reproduced by subjects enacting that understanding
• when understanding breaks down: sense-making comes in and subjects try to make sense of what is going on, both individually and collectively

Question 15

problems of sense-making

Answer 15

• individuals have to put in effort to understand a situation
• we must learn to interpret something
• every individual makes a different estimation because we are unique

Question 16

sense-making and hermeneutics

Answer 16

individualism:
- hermeneutics believes sense-making is ongoing
- based on individual judgement
- individual interpretation is human condition
understanding:
- not about general law of formula
- about understanding a unique individual situation

Question 17

enacting more in depth

Answer 17

• cognitive approach of creating social structures
  individualism:
• starts on an individual level
• every person divides his attention in different ways
  understanding:
• categories of knowledge are created by interpersonal interactions and the interpretation of social relationships

Question 18

constitutive beliefs

Answer 18

• about the identity of the firm, their competitors, the suppliers and the customers

Question 19

causal beliefs

Answer 19

• about what it takes to successfully compete within the identified environment

Question 20

mental model

Answer 20

A mental model is an explanation of someone’s thought process about how something works in the real world.