Hermeneutics is the art of interpretation, closely taking apart a text, a discourse, or some other narrative in order to assess the underlying aspects to see what the author is 'really' telling us, or what we can discover about his life.

In general, hermeneutics is the study of theory and practice of interpretation. And then there are, at least, four sub-fields: (a) traditional hermeneutics (including Biblical hermeneutics) that refers to interpretation of texts such as of religion, literature, or law. (b) Contemporary or modern hermeneutics that extends beyond the written text and refers also to all forms of communication such as philosophy of language and semiotics. (c) Philosophical hermeneutics refers to Gadamer's theory of hermeneutics, and, occasionally, to that of Paul Ricoeur's. (e) Finally, hermeneutic consistency represents analysis of texts for coherent explanation.

In short, hermeneutics is the recognition that ideas are nested in linguistics, historical and cultural horizons of...
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