China Social Science Review

No.1, 2023

 

Hermeneutic Political Science and the Public Hermeneutics of History: A Hermeneutical Review of Historical Political Science

(Abstract)

 

Sun Guodong

 

The emerging idea of “historical political science” in contemporary China and “hermeneutic political science” in the contemporary West have similar points of interest, and both advocate introducing history into political analysis. “Hermeneutic political science” and “hermeneutic political philosophy” imply a historical hermeneutics oriented toward the social sciences and practical philosophy respectively, corresponding roughly to the social sciences and political philosophy-oriented historical political science respectively. Historical hermeneutics under modern conditions is about the collective self-understanding of the political community at the ethical-political level, which is inherently communal. Historical political science should follow the hermeneutic logic of “double dialogue” to promote the public hermeneutics of history, facilitate China’s self-understanding of the modern political order, and win universal recognition externally on the basis of full internal cohesion.