Sports and hermeneutic axiology. Methodological guidelines for research

Abstract

This article aims to define a set of theoretical and practical principles on the use of the contextualized hermeneutic methodology in the axiological field of sport. The word hermeneutics comes from the Greek -ἑρμηνεύειν- which means “to interpret, explain or translate”. We will start from the assumption that we human beings cannot live without the values’ existence, we must position ourselves in an axiological way. By applying hermeneutics to the theory of sport’s values, it will help us to critically understand the procedures of vital rationality, enable understanding, and also the historical transmission, which will make us capable of coming up with new theoretical foundations for the analysis of human relationships. In our study, we intend to go deeper into the field of theoretical significance, a fact that will lead to a turnaround in traditional research, especially in the context of communicative works. The main purpose of the study must be to open up the dialogic need for new ways of understanding the meaning of reality as something diverse and complex. As main conclusions, we believe that the application of a hermeneutic methodology will enable us to get into the question of historical time and the relationship between history and time where the confrontation between the past and the future, or between experience and expectation, is situated. All this will allow us to achieve the recovery of the interpretative capacity, something that will give a scientific basis to all the studies referred to as sport values.