This study recapitulates basic developments in the tradition of hermeneutic and phenomenological studies of science. It focuses on the ways in which scientific research is committed to the universe of interpretative phenomena. It treats scientific research by addressing its characteristic hermeneutic situations, and uses the following basic argument in this treatment:  By demonstrating that science’s epistemological identity is not to be spelled out in terms of objectivism, mathematical essentialism, representationalism, and foundationalism, one undermines scientism without succumbing scientific research to “procedures of normative-democratic control” that threaten science’s cognitive autonomy. The study shows that in contrast to social constructivism, hermeneutic phenomenology of scientific research makes the case that overcoming scientism does not imply restrictive policies regarding the constitution of scientific objects.

Dimitri Ginev has taught at the University of Western Kentucky and Sofia University. He was a Guest Professor at the Collegium Helveticum, ETH Zuerich, and Senior Fellow at the Zukunftskolleg, University of Konstanz. He was Fulbright Scholar, an Alexander-von-Humboldt scholar and head of 11 international academic projects.  He is the founder and editor of the international journal “Studia Culturologica”. Author of more than 400 scientific publications. Dr. Ginev has previously published with Springer one authored book and edited or co-edited three volumes.