23. A paradoxical, cyclic motion it may seem: particulars are understood via the whole and the whole via particulars. As such, the very process of understanding, the hermeneutic work, in Heidegger, Gadamer, etc. can be described as walking in a circle, though not one that is closed, ‘circulus vitiosus’, but instead one that is freely circulating and ever-widening, moving towards broader horizons. Therefore, the expression ‘hermeneutic spiral’ is often preferred to ‘hermeneutic circle’. Adrian Marino argues that the hermeneutic process is bound up with circular development. It runs through various circles, which constantly convey a series of alternate connections, retreats, old paths with new credibility, a demonstration ‘in spiral fashion’. L’herméneutique de Mircea Eliade, 1981; see also Gerard Radnitzky, Contemporary Schools of Metascience, 1968.
