THE PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACH TO INFORMATION SEEKING AND RETRIEVAL CALLED HERMENEUS

Resumo

Information seekers always have a question in mind even when they do not know exactly what it is. How an information seeking and retrieval system can support users while they are still shaping their information needs? We resorted to the hermeneutic circle philosophical concept of Heidegger and Gadamer to provide the principles of such a system. In our implementation users are able to develop their ideas while browsing the information and the concepts that represent the information. We chose ontologies to implement this hermeneutic approach. Ontologies improve information retrieval systems regarding its retrieval and presentation of information, which make the task of finding information more effective, efficient, and interactive. We called our framework Hermeneus, which in Greek means the interpreter or translator. Hermeneus works as an intermediary that facilitates the user to move from the initial state of information need to the goal state of resolution. Our system intends to be the bridge between the user’s question and the answer to be found while she or he navigates in the ontology concepts and the instances of these concepts in a back and forth way.