Hermeneutics. The History, Foundations and Classics of the Theory of Understanding looks at understanding as a universal phenomenon, but also its significance for the methodology of social sciences and humanities. Some of the most important questions of scientific foundation and methodology are discussed within the framework of various hermeneutic concepts. Among them are the classics of hermeneutics, such as Schleiermacher, Dilthey and Gadamer, but also Heidegger, who marked an ontological turn in hermeneutics at the beginning of the twentieth century by giving the problem of understanding an existential-ontological character. In recent decades, hermeneutics has been somewhat suppressed in discussions within social sciences, but has gained importance in ethics, philosophy of technology, anthropology and philosophical practice. This book is an attempt to draw attention to hermeneutics again as an unavoidable factor in that discourse, and to present the most important positions and methodological problems throughout its history, which is almost as long as the history of philosophy itself.