Interpretation: What's Hermeneutics?

Author
amir safari
university of science and culture
Abstract
Hermeneutics is the theory of interpretation: what it is to interpret a text and how that interpretation may be valid. Hermeneutics was first introduced in a religious context, i.e. the discussion of the possible methods of achieving a correct interpretation of the Bible. But the introduction of hermeneutics into the human sciences has entailed controversies: It has been accused of relativism and not relying on a solid theoretical foundation. Gadamer, as one of the leading protégés of Martin Heidegger, has been very influential in the development of hermeneutics theory in the 20th century. His arguments mainly center around the question of understanding: What happens when we understand a text or another person? Is the idea of an objective meaning a defensible argument? Gadamer argues that texts do not have objective meanings but that does not necessarily mean that we should embrace relativism. The article then considers the argument between Habermas and Gadamer concerning the Enlightenment ideal of critique. The final section of the text takes into the account the idea of understanding another person, saying that requires not theory but spending time with another person. The writer argues that true understanding cannot come through theories alone but entails a living alongside one another for a long period of time

Keywords

 
1- Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, trans. John Macquarrie and Edward Thompson (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1980)
2- Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method,  trans. J Weinsheimer and D.G. Marshall, 2nd rev. ed (New York Seabury Press 1989)
3- Gadamer, 'The Hermeneutics of suspicion' in Gary Shapiro and Alan Sica (ed.), Hermeneutics: Questions and Prospects (Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984), pp 54-65, on p 64.
4- Gadamer, Truth and Method, pp.97-8
5- Ibid, 269
6- Ibid, 297
7-Ibid, 340
8-Ibid, 149
9-Ibid, 268
10- Gadamer, 'Replik' in K. O. Apel et al (eds.) Hermeneutik und Ideologiekritik (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1997) p. 304
11-Dieter Misgeld and Graeme Nicholson (eds.) Hans-Georg Gadamer on Education, Poerty and History: Applied Hermeneutics, trans. Lawrence Schmidt and Monica Reuss ( Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1992) p. 59.
12- Gadamer, Truth and Method, p.304
13- Gadamer, 'Welt ohne Geschichte?'in Gesammte Werke, 10 vols. (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1986-95) x. 315-23, on p.323.
14- Gianni Vattimo , Beyond Interpretation: The meaning of hermeneutics for philosophy, trans. David Webb (Cambridge: Polity, 1997), p.30.
15- Gadamer, 'Text and Interpretation,' in Diane P. Michelfelder and Richard E. Palmer (eds.), Dialogue and Deconstruction: The Gadamer-Derrida Encounter (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1989), pp.21-54
16- Robert Bernasconi,"You don't know what I am talking about": 'Alterity and the Hermeneutic Ideal', Hermeneutics (Evanston,III.: Northwestern University Press, 1995),pp 178-94, on p 180.
17- Gadamer, Text and Interpretation' , p.25  
Society Culture Media
Volume 6, Issue 25
Winter 2017
Pages 141-164

  • Receive Date 01 October 2018