DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN THE SOCIAL

SCIENCES
Quarter 2 – Module 2
Hermeneutical Phenomenology and Human-
Environment Systems
What I Need to Know
Hermeneutics is the philosophy and methodology of text interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom
literature, and philosophical texts.
In ancient Greek mythology, the god Hermes served to interpret messages from the other gods. Like
Hermes’ name, the term hermeneutics coms from the Greek word for ‘interpreter’. The concept of utilizing a
system to interpret texts was first noted in early writings by Aristotle. In contemporary times, the word
‘hermeneutics’ is generally used to refer to interpretation of the Bible. Scriptural hermeneutics are used by
religious scholars as a system by which to correctly understand the meanings of the Bible. By adhering to a
specific set of guidelines, scholars seek to uncover the basic truths set forth in Scripture.
Phenomenology is commonly understood in either of two ways: a disciplinary field in philosophy, or as
a movement in the history of philosophy. The discipline of phenomenology may be defined initially as the study
of structures of experience, or consciousness. Literally, phenomenology is the study of “phenomena”:
appearances of things as they appear in our experience, or the ways we experience things, thus the meanings
things have in our experience. Phenomenology studies conscious experience as experienced from the subjective
or first person point of view.
Systems which combine both human and natural components to show complex interactions, and
feedback between them, are called human-environment systems. Human environmental interactions can be
defined as interactions between the human social system and the ecosystem. Human social systems and
ecosystems are complex adaptive systems. Complex because ecosystems and human social systems have many
parts and many connections between these parts. Adaptive because they have feedback structures that promote
survival in a constantly changing environment. (3G Elearning FZ LLC 2017)
In this module you will:
1. Analyze the basic concepts and principles of Hermeneutical Phenomenology and Human-Environment
Systems

Lesson 3 Hermeneutical Phenomenology and

Human-Environment Systems
Hermeneutical phenomenology is a philosophy of and a method for
interpreting human experiences as a means to understand the question of
what it is to be human. This philosophy was developed by Martin Heidegger
(1889-1976) as a continuation ad divergence from phenomenology, the
philosophy developed by his mentor and colleagues, Edmund Husserl (1859-
1938). Hermeneutical phenomenology is sometimes referred to as
interpretative phenomenology or existential phenomenology, while
phenomenology.

Meanwhile, Human-environment systems are the interdisciplinary approaches

which study the complex interactions among human and environment systems.
Human systems are the various institutions and activities humans created in society.
These systems include government policies, industrial waste management,
agriculture, urbanization, culture, and tradition. On the other hand, environmental
systems are the biological, ecological, and living ad nonliving natural systems in our
planet. (Alejandria-Gonzalez 2016)
What’s New
A. Directions: Given the following optical illusions, give your own interpretation about the image that you see.
Afterwards, ask another family member to interpret what he/she sees in the pictures and answer the follow
up questions.

Photo credit: clipartmax

 Picture:
Photo credit:
Own Interpretation: Other possible answer:
brisray.com

Photo credit: pinterest.com

Follow up questions:
1. Comparing your own interpretation and the other person’s interpretation, was there any difference?
What are these?
2. What can you say about these optical illusions? Give a brief explanation.

What is It
A. BASIC CONCEPTS OF HERMENEUTICAL PHENOMENOLOGY:
1. HERMENEUTICAL PHENOMENOLOGY – is a qualitative research methodology that arose out of and
remains closely tied to phenomenological philosophy, a strand of continent philosophy. Phenomenology
refers to a person’s perception of the meaning of an event, as opposed to the event as exist externally to
(outside of) that person
2. HERMENEUTICS - In the study of literary texts, scholars frequently adhere to a set of rules or a specific
system on which to base their interpretation. Similarly, the interpretation of non- literary texts, such as art or
philosophy, may also require adherence to such a method. The specific rules used to interpret and understand a text
are known collectively as hermeneutics.
3. HERMENEUTIC ANALYSIS Hermeneutic Analysis is a name for various methods of analysis, which are
based on interpreting. The strategy forms an opposite to those research strategies which stress objectivity
and independence of interpretations in the formations in formation of knowledge.
4. HERMENEUTIC RESEARCH Hermeneutic research enables you to make interpretations and gain an in-
depth understanding of the researched phenomenon. Hermeneutic research emphasizes subjective
interpretations in the research of meanings of texts, art, culture, social phenomena and thinking.
5. PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS Phenomenological analysis is based on discussions and reflections
of direct sense perception and experiences of the researched phenomenon. A starting point of the strategy is
your ability to approach a project without a priori assumptions, definitions or theoretical frameworks. A key
aspect of this method of analysis is phenomenological reduction
6. PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH enables you to explore experiences and sensory perception
(different to abstract perceptions) of researched phenomenon, and the formation of understanding based on
these experiences and perceptions. Your research strategy is based, therefore, on either your own or other
people’s experiences and sensory perceptions. (Alfornon 2019)

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF HERMENEUTICAL PHENOMENOLOGY:

1. In hermeneutical phenomenology, data and their significance provide a catalyst for which reflection and
interpretation results in meaning. As a research methodology, it is qualitative by conventional descriptions,
and can be thoroughly applied to any social science research. (Alejandria-Gonzalez 2016)
2. We live in the world: in history, in concretion: we do not live anywhere else, and all meaning is only
meaning in relation to particular, concrete, historical existence.
3. Our existence as beings includes: our situation, our tools-to-hand with and through which we manipulate
and articulate the world; and our fore- understandings of the world.
4. We share reality through common signs. We cannot share anyone else’s reality except through the
mediation of our symbolic world- that is through a ‘text’ of some sort, which text has a context- in fact,
many contexts.
5. Our symbolic world is not separate from our beings in regard to language.
6. While experience is present to us through signification, experience is not just language, or signifying
systems generally; experience preexists signification at the same time as signification brings it into meaning.
7. In phenomenology, it might be said that speech precedes writing: there is always a self-presence before
there is signification, and there is always something of our being-in-the world beyond its signification.
8. All consciousness is consciousness of. Consciousness intends, has an object, is towards something. As self-
consciousness as well as other consciousness is intentional, this means that at the heart of being there is
distance.
9. Self-understanding is a cultural act, and culture is a personal act. In order to ‘understand’ one must ‘fore-
understand’, have a stance, an anticipation and a contextualization. This is known as the ‘hermeneutic
circle’
10. Similarly, one can only know the world through fore-understanding, but the world, as it is concrete and
exceeds our signification of it, forces us to revise our fore-understandings.
11. Following on point 10 above, one reads with a wholeness of presence, as one’s fore-understanding is a
wholeness of presence.
12. That which constitutes our reality, our symbolic world, has a limit, or ‘horizon’, beyond which we cannot
‘see’.
13. The text is cut off from its original context and its thrust into an alien context through the act of reading. The
reader’s horizon meets the text’s horizon: the reader reads with his/her understanding and frames of
reference.
14. The text embodies the ‘style’ of the author, the inscription of his/her individuality, the unconscious as well
as conscious understanding of and orientation toward the world and the subject area which is known as
intentionality.
15. The very function of form ‘opens up’ the text for a dialogue in a way that texts with less ‘form’ do.
(Abulencia, et al. 2017)

IMPORTANT THEORISTS IN HERMENEUTICAL PHENOMENOLOGY:

1. EDMUND HUSSERL (1859-1938) was a German philosopher and is referred to
as the Father of Phenomenology. The aim of phenomenology is to gain an
understanding of the underlying
structures found in everyday experiences of how consciousness can grasp these
Photo credit: pinterest
concepts.
2. MARTIN HEIDEGGER (1889-191976) was a German philosopher
who was known to have popularized hermeneutical phenomenology. For him, the
biases that Husserl tries to remove through phenomenological reduction are
influences which cannot be totally removed from experiencing the world.
Photo credit: Great Thinkers

3. HANS-GEORG GADAMER (1900-2002) was a German philosopher who

argued that it is historical tradition that enables people to understand one another
and interpret texts.
Photo credit: johnshaplin

4. MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY (1908-1961) was a French philosopher who

further elaborated on man being-in-the-world by giving particular attention to the
body.
Photo credit: psychology wiki

5. JEAN PAUL SARTRE (1905-1980) was a French philosopher who popularized

the philosophy of existentialism. Existence and essence are two philosophical terms
that are central to Sartre’s existential thought. (Alejandria-Gonzalez 2016)
Photo credit: academic kids

What’s New
A. Read the excerpt below or watch the video by Prince EA entitled “Dear Future Generation: Sorry” from
Youtube (https://bit.ly/3o76WLg) and write an essay guided by the following questions:
Dear Future Generations,
I think I speak for the rest of us when I say,
sorry, sorry we left you our mess of a planet.
Sorry that we were too caught up in our own doings to do something.
Sorry we listened to people who made excuses, to do
nothing….

You know what, cut the beat, I'm not sorry.

This future I do not accept it, because an
error does not become a mistake,
until you refuse to correct it. We
can redirect this, how?
Let me suggest that if a farmer sees a tree that is unhealthy, they don't
look at the branches to diagnosis it,
they look at the root, so like that farmer, we
must look at the root,
and not to the branches of the government, not to the
politicians run by corporations.
 We are the root, we are the foundation, this generation, it is up
to us to take care of this planet.
It is our only home, we must globally warm our hearts and
change the climate of our souls
and realize that we are not apart from nature, we are
a part of nature.
And to betray nature is to betray us, to
save nature, is to save us.
Because whatever you're fighting for:
Racism, Poverty, Feminism, Gay Rights, or any
type of Equality.
It won't matter in the least,
because if we don't all work together to save the environment, we will
be equally extinct. (EA 2020)

Essay Guide Questions:

1. How do you relate yourself to this song?
2. As a youth who is part of the future generation, how will you be of great help
for the preservation of our environment?

What is It
A. BASIC CONCEPTS OF HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT SYSTEMS

1. HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT SYSTEMS are interactions between the human social system and the
ecosystem. These systems are both complex and adaptive. They combine both human and natural
components to show complex interactions, and feedback between them.
2. ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE- caused by a perturbation to the landscape system as a result of internal or
external natural disturbance or human-induced disturbance.
3. ENVIRONMENTAL THRESHOLD- refers to a point whereby the environment changes from one phase
or trajectory to another.
4. SENSITIVITY- (in relation to responses to change) refers to the high susceptibility of the landscape to
external impact.
5. RESILIENCE- it is defined as the magnitude of disturbance that a system can experience before It moves
into a different state or ‘stability domain’
6. ADAPTATION- the ability of an organism, human or non-human, to survive and reproduce itself in a
particular environment. (Abulencia, et al. 2017)
7. SENSE OF PLACE- refers to the development of meaning or association with a given location. It is a
sense of belonging or identity, which is developed through the community that occupies it, its landscape
features, and the emotions it brings.
8. MENTAL MAP- refers to the mental representation of things and people of a given location. It is formed by
the memory’s identification of the physical characteristics and features of a particular place.
9. PRIMARY LANDSCAPE- the place where we grew up is what human geographers consider as our
primary landscape and is the basis for our experience of new places.
10. SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION- refers to the distribution of anything that exists on Earth that can be mapped
out and is observable through spatial processes.
11. SPATIAL PROCESS- is the underlying structure responsible for the spatial distribution of things. For
example, the physical distribution of mountain ranges can be attributed to tectonic shifts, while their cultural
distribution can be attributed to technological systems affecting human needs.

APPROACHES IN STUDYING HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT SYSTEMS

1. ENVIRONMENT DETERMINISM asserts that the natural environment dictates the course of culture. In
this model, human society is restricted to a range of outcomes or even a single possible outcome by a
particular set of environmental parameters.
2. POSSIBILISM- claims that although nature may circumscribe the possibilities for humans, historical and
cultural factors explain what possibility is actually chosen.
3. CULTURAL ECOLOGY- the study of processes by which a society adapts to its environment.
4. HISTORICAL ECOLOGY- this approach utilizes the notion of ecology as an attempt to understand the
reciprocal relationship between people and environment and draws its understanding of these relationships
from their mutual influence over time.
5. DPSIR (Drivers, Pressures, State, Impact, Responses) MODEL- recognized the human activities which
place pressure on the environment and how these pressures modify the current state of the atmosphere,
hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere.
 IMPORTANT THEORISTS IN HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT SYSTEMS
1. URIE BRONFENBRENNER (1917-2005)- was a developmental
psychologist who became popularly known for his ecological systems theory,
which centered on child development. The ecological systems theory proposed
a five-layer approach in understanding human development:
a. Individual- the human being as he/she
Photo credit:
pinte b. Microsystem- pertains to all situations and factors that directly affect the
individual.
rest

c. Mesosystem- consists of social groups that include work, family, siblings,

peers, church, neighborhood, and school.
d. Exosystem- consists of some setting or events that do not have a direct
effect on the person add their impact reaches the person through others. It
consists of the following variables: government reforms, social unrest,
financial and business crises, new laws, tax policies, environmental
regulations, parent’s work environment, and mass media
e. Macrosystem- is said to be the most abstract and complicated of the four
systems. One’s macrosystem is defined by gender, religion, period or era,
political ideology, socioeconomic status, and culture.

2. GARRETT HARDIN (1915-2003)- was an American ecologist who gained

popularity for his essay “Tragedy of the Commons” (1968). Its basic premise is
that overpopulation is the root of all societal issues. So, controlling population
growth could resolve the
Photo credit:
word
multitude of issues plaguing human populations.
press

3. ERNEST BURGESS (1886-1966)- was an urban sociologist who had a stellar

career in the U.S., having been the 24 th president of the American Sociological
Association. He is known for the
concentric zone model (with Robert Park), which presented the spatial arrangement
Photo credit:
twitt of people and institutions within a city.
er

Bronfenbrenner Ecological Systems Theory Concentric Zone Model

What I Have Learned

Directions: Complete the diagram below:

What I Can Do
Photo credits: (https://binged.it/33tdprN n.d.)
1. Photo credit: ResearchGate.net
3 best things I learned today: 2.
3.

1.
2 things that caught my interest: 2.

1 thing that I wanted to learn more about: 1.

 Task: Collage making

Directions: Make a collage using YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES that would reflect the concepts and principles
of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory. Use recycled materials or any materials available at your
home. Do not forget to write the title and the labels. See the rubrics below.

Rubrics:
CATEGORY 4 3 2 1

Most of the graphics Only a few graphics

All of the graphics or objects
or objects used in the collage or objects reflect student
Resourcefulness used in the collage reflect None of the graphics or objects
reflects resourcefulness and resourcefulness or the ideas
and Originality resourcefulness and
originality were typical and copied
reflects resourcefulness
originality
rather than creative

Graphics are cut to an Graphics are not an appropriate

appropriate size, shape and 3-4 graphics are lacking in size shape.
are arranged neatly. Care 1-2 graphics are lacking in design or placement. TooGlue marks evident. Most of the
has been taken to balance design or much background is background is showing. It
Design the placement. There may be a few showing. There are appears little attention was
pictures across the area. Items smudges or glue marks noticeable smudges or glue given to designing the
are glued neatly and marks. collage.
securely. .

The collage includes 8 or more

The collage contains fewer than
items, each different. IsThe collage includes 7 different
The collage includes 5 different
5 different items. Missing
Number of Items properly correctly label.4 items and items.
many items.
or more kinds of ecological
three kinds of ecological systems Missing some items
.
systems

The title is catchy and creative

and related to the collage. A title
The labels are correct andis provided that relates to the
Title and Labels are incomplete
Title and Labels provides insight to the collage. The labels describe and No title or tables!
purpose/meaning and the purpose and process ofpartially relate to the collage
design creating the collage
of the collage

Assessment
Multiple Choice. Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on a separate sheet of paper.

1. It is a qualitative research methodology that arose out of and remains closely tied to phenomenological
philosophy, a strand of continent philosophy.
A. Cultural Ecology C. Hermeneutical Phenomenology
B. Human-environment Systems D. Phenomenological Research
2. The collective term for the specific rules used to interpret and understand a text.
A. Phenomenology C. Spatial Process
B. Mental Map D. Hermeneutics
3. It enables you to make interpretations and gain an in-depth understanding of the researched phenomenon.
A. Hermeneutic Research C. Historical Ecology
B. Environment determinism D. Primary Landscape
4. He was a German philosopher who was known to have popularized hermeneutical phenomenology
A. Edmund Husserl C. Martin Heidegger
B. Garett Hardin D. Urie Bronfenbrenner
5. He was a French philosopher who further elaborated on man being-in-the-world by giving particular
attention to the body.
A. Ernest Burgess C. Jean Paul Sartre
B. Maurice Merleau-Ponty D. Hans-Georg Gadamer
6. It is defined as the magnitude of disturbance that a system can experience before It moves into a different
state or ‘stability domain’
 A. Adaptation C. Sense of place
B. ResilienceD. Sensitivity
7. These are interactions between the human social system and the ecosystem.
A. Hermeneutical Analysis C. Phenomenological Analysis
B. Phenomenological Research D. Human-environment systems
8. It is the study of processes by which a society adapts to its environment.
A. Cultural Ecology C. Historical Ecology
B. DPSIR D. Possibilism
9. He is widely known for his work on the concentric zone model, which presented the spatial arrangement of
people and institutions within a city.
A. Ernest Burgess C. Martin Heidegger
B. Garrett Hardin D. Urie Bronfenbrenner
10. The ecological systems theory proposed a five-layer approach in understanding human development.
Which among the following is not part of these layers?
A. IndividualC. Microsystem
B. Nanosystem D. Macrosystem

Disciplines and Ideas in Social Sciences

Quarter 2 Week 2
Answer Sheet

Assessment

1. 6.
2. 7.
3. 8.
4. 9.
5. 10.

Performance Task no. 2 What I Can Do

Microsystem
Paste your picture
here and write
your name