Hermeneutics aims to decipher meaning through interpretation that extends beyond the text itself, treating the world itself as text. Every encounter can be hermeneutical and hermeneutic rationality can be applied to the study of various cultural phenomena. However, traditional ontologies focus on the primary categorization of beings, that is, objects, or on forces (hyperobjects). A new ontological model, spectral ontology, places a particular importance on nonbeings, spectricities, that serve to establish the fundamental ontology of relationality. This ontology creates a need to extend hermeneutics beyond that which exists into the nonrelational, that is, nonexistent. This paper aims to reveal the necessity of this shift and the implications of it for the study of the humanities.
Zachary Isrow (Wed,) studied this question.