The purpose of this paper is to give an outline of digital hermeneutics understood as the encounter between hermeneutics and
digital technology, particularly the Internet. In the first part, I want to raise the attention of IT researchers and hermeneuticists
to the theoretic and practical relevance of the encounter of their areas of research that are sometimes considered as incompatible
to each other. There is still a lot of translation work to be done in order to get these two cultures come closer to and profit
from each other. The second part of the paper deals with the foundation of digital hermeneutics on what I call—following Heidegger’s
and Vattimo’s paths—digital ontology as opposed to digital metaphysics.
Keywords Hermeneutics - Information - IT - Internet - Digital technology - Human body - Phenomenology
This paper is based on a keynote address to the conference “Thinking Critically: Alternative Perspectives and Methods in Information
Studies” organized by the Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, May 15–17, 2008. A video of the lecture is available at: http://129.89.43.24:8080/ramgen/classes/samore/2008/samore08.rm. The original text is online at: http://www.capurro.de/wisconsin.html. It was published in: Elizabeth Buchanan and Carolyn Hansen (eds.). Proceedings. Thinking Critically: Alternative Methods
and Perspectives in Library and Information Studies. Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies,
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 2008, p. 190–220. I thank the organizers for their permission to use this text.