The double hermeneutic is the theory, expounded by sociologist Anthony Giddens, that everyday "lay" concepts and those from the social sciences have a two-way relationship.
[1] A common example is the idea of social class, a social-scientific category that has entered into wide use in society.
[3][4] Anthony Giddens (1982) argues that there is an important difference between the natural and social sciences.
[7] In outlining his notion of the double hermeneutic, Giddens explains that while philosophers and social scientists have often considered the way "in which lay concepts obstinately intrude into the technical discourse of social science," ... "(f)ew have considered the matter the other way around.
"[9] Philosopher Dimitri Ginev said that since the 1970s, discussions about double hermeneutics in postempiricist epistemology and in critical theory have led to "a tendency to oppose the methodological to the ontological reading of double hermeneutics", the methodological standpoint traditionally understanding double hermeneutics as a differentia specifica of human-scientific inquiry.