Critical Hermeneutics 6(2), (2022) Submission date: 23 December 2022 Biannual International Journal of Philosophy Acceptance date: 9 January 2023 http://ojs.unica.it/index.php/ecch/index Date of publication: 23 January 2023 ISSN 2533-1825 (on line); DOI 10.13125/CH/5435 Witnessing, Truth, and Realism: A Hermeneutic-Phenomenological Approach Gert-Jan van der Heiden Abstract Departing from the opening lines of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, this essay provides a hermeneutic phenomenological contribution to the recent turn to realism. In particular, it offers an account of how the notions of truth and reality are thought in hermeneutic phenomenology by exploring the meaning of notions such as res, substance, and causa; it provides a contemporary reinterpretation of theōria that does not fall prey to either the modern version of the scientific-theoretical point of view or the onto-theological fallacies of metaphysics. By de- veloping the model of witnessing as a guideline for a rethinking of theōria, this essay discusses, first, two realist critiques of hermeneu- tic phenomenology concerning correlationism and relativism; second, two ways of understanding the real and the true in hermeneutic phe- nomenology; and third, develops how language can be the locus of truth. In the course of these explorations, it is shown how truth, real- ism, theōria are understood in hermeneutic phenomenology. Keywords: truth, realism, witnessing, theōria 1. Introduction: Reinterpreting Aristotle’s Theōria “All humans by nature desire [oregontai] to know” , as the famous opening line of Aristotle’s Metaphysics reads. The human sensing of