Human-AI Collaborative Hermeneutics: A New Research Paradigm for the History of Economic Thought in AI Era

The surge of Artificial Intelligence and the contemporary imperative to construct an autonomous knowledge system for economics pose a profound challenge to the traditional research paradigm in the history of economic thought.This paper diagnoses that although the discipline has established the ambitious program of a “history of knowledge production,” three inherent pathologies of the traditional close-reading method — “structural blindness,” “procedural oversight,” and “empirical aphasia” — have created a profound gap between scholarly aspirations and research capabilities.To address this dilemma,this paper systematically constructs a new paradigm:“ Human-AI Collaborative Hermeneutics.” Guided by the researcher's intellectual leadership (Phronesis),this paradigm deeply integrates AI-driven computational “distant reading” with the scholar's “close reading” interpretation through an iterative inquiry cycle:“problem construction,pattern discovery,meaning interpretation,and cyclical deepening.” Reinforced by a “triangulation method” to ensure interpretive robustness,the new paradigm endeavors to synthesize computational objectivity and interpretive subjectivity,aiming to elevate the “history of knowledge production” program from a speculative concept to a testable empirical science.Finally,the paper demonstrates how this new paradigm,through a series of cutting-edge agendas,can transform the history of economic thought into a more robust and substantial historical science and provide crucial methodological support for the mission of building an autonomous knowledge system.