German philosopher, historian, sociologist, and psychologist Wilhelm Dilthey was an opponent of applying positivism to social science, so he developed his epistemological approach based on hermeneutics. He believed that society could not be viewed in the same way as natural phenomena. It is not possible to document society as a social fact, nor is it possible to apply causal logic to social events. Therefore, it is impossible to create general causal and deterministic laws that would explain society. Instead of an objective study of society, Dilthey introduces the principle of a subjective approach to society. It is not possible to study society with the help of causal logic, it can be achieved only through interpretations, that is, the interpretation of phenomena. The key to his approach is the ability of the researcher to understand the inner mental states of others. To achieve scientific knowledge, it is necessary to use a combination of intuition and systematic application of interpretive methods. The experience of the researcher enables him to achieve a union of the subject and the object of research.

For Dilthey, understanding (Verstehen) means using our own mental life to connect with other people's minds. Meaning can be given to ideas, activities, or experiences. The socio-historical world represents the world of our shared experience. The meaning depends on the assumption that we all share, in essence, the same human nature. Meaning is always contextual, it represents the relationship of the whole with the parts. The process of interpretation begins with a principled understanding of the subject of study as a whole, which leads us to understand the meaning of the parts, which, in turn, allows us to see the whole more clearly. This closes the hermeneutic circle. Mentally placing ourselves in the situation of another person allows us to understand the thoughts and actions of that other person (his or her experience), but also to understand the socio-historical world. Dilthey's teachings influenced the division of sciences into nomothetic and ideographic. 

German sociologist Max Weber believed that the scientific study of social action requires the application of the cognitive method of „understanding“ (verstehen). Understanding is made possible by the fact that there is an identity between the subject (researcher) and the object (individual that is studied) of cognition, and therefore understanding has a higher degree of clarity and certainty compared to other forms and methods of cognition. The identity of the subject and the object of knowledge, in essence, means that scientists, as well as people whose work is the object of the study, have similar psychology. This is what enables scientists to understand the subjective meaning that social action has for the person who performs the social action.

Understanding has both an intellectual and an emotional component. This means that we can understand the rational aspect of one's social actions, while at the same time understanding the emotional motives of that social action. Understanding social action, as a sociological method, allows us to create causal explanations of individual events. On the other hand, creating causal explanations of complex processes requires the application of a comparative-historical method, while a thought experiment, also, serves as a research aid. A special type of sociological concept, in Weber's approach, is "ideal types". Ideal types represent abstract sociological concepts that allow us to classify the subjective side of human social action (both conscious and unconscious; both rational and emotional) according to their type into different categories. Ideal types can serve hypothetical-analytical understanding, or serve descriptive and historical explanations.

Authors: Dilthey Wilhelm, Weber, Max. Gadamer, Hans Georg; Heidegger, Martin; Husserl, Edmund; Ricoeur, Paul; Schleiermacher, Friedrich; Winch Peter.                    

Books: 

Dilthey, Wilhelm. Selected Works, Volume I: Introduction to the Human Sciences (1989);

     -     Selected Works, Volume II: Understanding the Human World  (2010);

     -     Selected Works, Volume IV: Hermeneutics and the Study of History (2010);

Gadamer, Hans Georg. Truth and Method (1989);

Ricoeur, Paul. Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences (1981);

Weber, Max. Collected Methodological Writings (Weber in Translation) (2014).