Hermeneutics and generative linguistics
: Itkonen Esa
: András Kertész, Edith Moravcsik, Csilla Rákosi
: Berlin
: 2019
: Current Approaches to Syntax: A Comparative Handbook
: 3
: 441
: 467
: 978-3-11-053821-2
: 978-3-11-054025-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110540253-016
: https://www.degruyter.com/view/books/9783110540253/9783110540253-016/9783110540253-016.xml
Positivism is the school of thought which advocates methodological monism: the natural sciences, epitomized by Newtonian physics, ought to serve as the model for all sciences. Hermeneutics is the school of thought which focuses on the relations, and in particular the differences, between natural and human sciences, with the understanding that metascience too is a hermeneutic discipline. (The philosophy of a natural science is itself not a natural science.) Generativism is characterized by an internal tension. On the one hand, its official stance is that of all-out positivism. On the other, it turns out to have strong affinities with hermeneutics.