Translated from Greek, the word "hermeneutics" means the art of interpretation and clarification. In a broad sense, it refers to the practice and theory of revealing the meaning of texts.
The history of hermeneutics began with ancient Greek philosophy. It was here that the art of interpreting various utterances arose for the first time, which contained ambiguous symbols. Used hermeneutics and Christian theologians. With its help, they interpreted the Bible. Hermeneutics acquired particular importance in the theology of Protestantism. Here she was seen as a means of revealing the “true meaning” of scripture.
The key to understanding
Hermeneutics became the scientific method due to the development of philosophy and other humanities. The formation of these disciplines required the search for special ways of understanding the subject of their study. They became such methods as psychological and historical, logical-semantic and phenomenological, structuralist, hermeneutical and some others.
However, it is worthwhile to understand that the specific subject that is being studied by the humanities is text. It is a special system of signs that have certain connections between themselves. Hermeneutics allows you to understand the meaning of the text, and do it “from the inside”, distracting from psychological, socio-historical and other factors. Thanks to this, it becomes possible to obtain the knowledge contained in it.
Hermeneutics is necessary in cases where there is a misunderstanding. And if the meaning of the text was hidden for the subject of cognition, then it must be interpreted, acquired, understood and decrypted. This is what hermeneutics does. In other words, it is a method for gaining humanitarian knowledge.
A bit of history
Modern hermeneutics includes more than one concrete scientific method of research. It is also a special direction in philosophy. The ideas of such hermeneutics were developed in the writings of Wilhelm Dilthey, a German philosopher, Emilio Betty, an Italian scientist, Martin Heidegger, who is considered one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century, as well as Hans Georg Gadamer (1900-2002). The Russian scientist involved in the development of this area was Gustav Gustavovich Shpet.
Philosophical hermeneutics is based on the ideas of V. Dilthey, with whom he sought to substantiate the specifics of the humanities and explain their difference from natural disciplines. He saw this precisely in the method of understanding the intuitive, direct comprehension of certain spiritual values. According to V. Dilthey, the sciences that study nature use a method of explanation dealing with external experience and related to the activity of reason. As for the study of fixed knowledge in writing, in order to obtain it, it is necessary to interpret some aspects of the spiritual life of a certain era. This is the specificity of the "spirit sciences", which are considered humanitarian.
Biography G.-G. Gadamera
This great philosopher was born 02/11/1900 in Marburg. Hans-Georg Gadamer is on the list of the greatest thinkers, whose activities took place in the second half of the twentieth century. This German scientist is the founder of philosophical hermeneutics.
Gadamer graduated from universities in Breslau and Marburg. As a student, he studied history and philosophy, art history, evangelical theology and theory of literature. At 22, he defended his thesis, receiving a doctorate. His supervisor was Paul Natorp.
In 1923, Gadamer met M. Heidegger, who at that time taught at the University of Marbrugg.
Somewhat later, Hans-Georg began to study classical philology. In this direction in 1929 he defended his dissertation, the theme of which concerned the Platonic "Fileba".
From 1939 to 1947, Gadamer was a professor at the University of Leipzig. In the years 1946-1947. He was the rector of this institution. After that, he taught in Frankfurt, and two years later he took a chair at the University of Heidelberg, whose former head was Karl Jaspers.
Having retired in 1968, Gadamer went to the USA, where until 1989 he taught at the country's universities.
"Truth and Method"
Gadamer wrote an essay under that title in 1960. This work became the most important work on hermeneutics created in the 20th century. A little later, the author wrote a more extensive version of his book, which was published in the first volume of the complete collection of his works. The work “Truth and Method” by Gadamer on hermeneutics was further supplemented. The author deepened his project and modified parts of it. Of course, other philosophers were engaged in the development of this direction. And it was not only Martin Heidegger, but also Paul Ricoeur. Nevertheless, without a book on Hans Gadamer’s hermeneutics, this discipline would have been completely different.
Main program
If we consider Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics briefly, it represents a discussion of the general problems of understanding. In its traditional interpretation, this method was a real art, with the help of which the texts were explained.
The hermeneutics of Hans Gadamer provides for the existence of relations not with the methods used by the humanities. She considers the universality of interpretation and understanding, which relates to culture and to the studied objects as a whole. Moreover, it is organized on the basis of language, and not on methodologically significant requirements.
The philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer and Heidegger is represented by human existence. She is the forerunner of any methodological reflection.
If we consider Gadamer's basic philosophical hermeneutics briefly, it consists, first of all, in the definition of understanding and how it occurs at a fundamental level. Answering it, the author presents this element in the form of a certain kind of circle. Indeed, understanding in his theory is a repeating structure in which each new interpretation makes a reference to pre-understanding and returns to it.
In philosophical hermeneutics G.G. Gadamer such a circle is seen as an open historical process. And in it, everything interpreted and anyone interpreting is already included in the tradition of understanding. At the same time, the philosopher emphasizes that the starting point is always dialogical, and language is used to create it.
Gadamer elevates philosophical hermeneutics to the rank of a direction in which there is a rejection of subjectivity. But in the methodology it is precisely this that is the central perspective.
Such a refusal allowed Gadamer hermeneutics to make a significant contribution to the development of this discipline. And here you can consider some key points.
First of all, it became clear that philosophical hermeneutics is a direction that involves self-understanding of the humanities. Gadamer is convinced that the scientific nature of such disciplines was discussed too methodologically. Moreover, the models adopted in the natural sciences have always found their use.
What did Gadamer do for hermeneutics? He distanced its philosophical direction from the methodological concept that was adopted in the humanities.
Some interpreters of the hermeneutics of Gadamer even believed that they had been offered some alternative method. But the author does not intend to engage in a discussion of any scientific method. He is only interested in advancing the theory to a level that would be more fundamental than all scientific reflections. The subtitle to the book “Truth and Method” allows avoiding various interpretations. It sounds like "Fundamentals of philosophical hermeneutics."
The second point in rejecting a methodological understanding is the definition of a general condition that allows you to interpret the text. In his hermeneutics, Gadamer studies the roles and experience of understanding in the practical life of man. The author considers the main task of this direction to be the placement of scientific forms of understanding the world in the totality of the interpreting human relations to him. In this case, the author is talking about a general theory of experience. And this is confirmed by the first part of "Truth and Method." Here Gadamer criticizes the subjectivization of experience, which takes place in modern aesthetics. And he begins from the time of Kant. After that, following Heidagger, Gadamer proposes to introduce a more ontological and extensive theory of aesthetic experience into philosophical hermeneutics. According to him, a work of art is not only an object of subjective experience. First of all, it should be understood as a place where a certain experience is gained or occurs using the game method.
Novelty approach
What did Gadamer do for hermeneutics? He changed the focus of this direction. The novelty of this scientist’s approach is that he focused not on the philosophical aspect that belongs to hermeneutics, but on the hermeneutical one, which takes place in philosophy. He combined the centuries-old rich tradition of interpretation with the direction proposed by M. Heidegger. At the same time, the author applied the method of successively displacing all available judgments concerning the everyday idea of the world around him.
Among the basic ideas of G. Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics, the most fundamental is the one that claims that truth cannot be known by anyone alone who will report it. The author saw the "soul" of the direction he was developing in maintaining dialogue, the ability to give a word to a dissident, and also in the ability to assimilate everything that was pronounced by him.
A rethinking of cultural phenomena has found a place in Gadamer's hermeneutics. The philosopher constantly emphasized the dialogical nature of the direction he developed as a logic between question and answer. He interpreted the cultural tradition, considering it as a dialogue between the past and the present. And for Gadamer, this was not at all a cultural task. Such a dialogue was considered by scientists as an independent source for obtaining philosophical knowledge.
The author brought together two concepts such as tradition and culture. He called for the realization that any of the acts of understanding is a component of both this and the other concept. And this contributes to the creation by man of the space of a holistic symbolic world.
Logos and Nus
Gadamer elevates philosophical hermeneutics to the origins of Greek thought. At the same time, the starting point of his idea is a criticism of those traditions of European rationalism that tried to develop concepts such as “Logos” and “Nus”. Thoughts about them can be found in Greek philosophy.
Under the auspices of the Logos, ancient thinkers have combined such directions that, when researching ratios, proportions and numbers, attribute certain properties of these concepts to the whole world, as well as its dynamic origin. This is the logo. As for Nus, with his submission begins a centuries-old series of discussions about the relationship of thought and being.
Kant's vision of ideas
The philosophy of this scientist in the hermeneutics of Hans Gadamer is interpreted in a very original and interesting way. After all, Kant, developing his ideas, relied on the rationality of the new time, justified by natural disciplines. But at the same time, the scientist set himself the task of uniting the mind as such. The reason for this was Kant's vision of a breakdown between life and scientific rationality.
A little later, those subtleties that relate to the philosophy of modern times, were put aside by him. At the same time, rationality of means has become increasingly viewed under rationality. After all, it was she who made it possible to present the goals as self-evident and clear. This became a reduction of the integrity of the mind in some of its manifestations, as well as its great expansion.
But there was a second side to the coin. She was the spread of irrationalism in culture and in everyday life. That is why the question of the Logos began to be raised again and again, and scientists again began to discuss about rationality and everyday life.
Gadamer was convinced that science should not turn into that sphere where reason alone dominates, because it is capable of manifesting itself in a wide variety of forms that challenge human thinking.
Life experience
For a more complete understanding of the basic ideas of Gadamer's hermeneutics and the concept of the essence of this direction, it should be borne in mind that it is primarily practical. Implement it in the form of activities aimed at comprehending a particular text. If you take hermeneutics outside this practice, then it will immediately lose its specificity.
In his doctrine of hermeneutics, Hans-Georg Gadamer deliberately avoided systemic exposition. And this despite the fact that it is familiar to philosophical classics. The fact is that the author himself rejected the "spirit of the system" and the rigid attitudes of traditional rationalism. Nevertheless, analyzing Gadamer's work “Truth and Method”, as well as his later works, some key concepts can be identified. In Gadamer hermeneutics, they have fundamental significance.
Understanding
This word is common in everyday life. However, in the interpretation of Gadamer's hermeneutics, it acquires special significance. For this philosopher, "understanding" is the same as "recognition." And at the same time, it is a universal way of human being. People always face the need for understanding. They have to recognize themselves. They strive to understand art, history, current events and other people. That is, the whole being of a person can be called a certain process of recognition. With this idea, Gadamer elevates philosophical hermeneutics into ontology, that is, the science of being.
All the development of hermeneutics that preceded Gadamer's writings convincingly proved the fact that the relations that arise between the subjects of understanding are certainly built according to the rules and on the basis of communication and dialogue. The greatest difficulty that the hermeneutics had to face at the dawn of the development of this direction was the modernization of texts written by other people, which they wanted to implement, considering the standard their own point of view. Such attempts led to the subjectivization of such a process, which found expression in a misunderstanding.
Text value
One of the problems of Gadamer's hermeneutics is the formulation of the question and the receipt of an answer to it. A text transmitted to a person is an item that requires interpretation. Getting it means asking the interpreter a question. The answer to it is the meaning of the text. The process of understanding written is expressed in the awareness of the question asked. This is achieved by gaining a hermeneutic horizon, that is, those boundaries within which the semantic orientation of the above is located.
Interpretation
This term is close in meaning to the concept of "understanding." However, interpretation means something else. Under it, thinking is understood by concepts and ideas, thanks to which a person perceives the world around him.
Anyone who seeks understanding and picks up the text is constantly busy “throwing meaning”. As soon as he appears, a person makes a preliminary sketch, with the help of which he tries to understand the main essence of what is written. And this becomes possible due to the fact that people read texts, trying to see in them this or that sense.
The development of sketches that will become correct and will answer the facts should be supported by specific information. This is the main task that confronts understanding. It will find its true possibilities only if the previously created opinion is not random. In this regard, it is important for the interpreter not to study the text with a pre-prepared presumption. He must expose the essence of the foregoing to what he understands in the first stages from the point of view of the justification of the facts. Moreover, they should be considered on the basis of significance and origin.
“Situation” and “horizon”
These concepts in Gadamer's concept also occupy an important place. What is the situation? This concept is characterized by the fact that we are constantly in it, and its highlighting is a task that does not know the completion. Everything finite has its limits. The situation is determined by what constitutes a certain point of view, which outlines these limits. Therefore, this concept also includes a term such as “horizon”. , , .
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An analysis of the essence of understanding allowed Gadamer to gain access to moral issues. After all, a person, once in a given situation, will certainly begin to act. He will do this either through his training, or using the general knowledge available in his arsenal. In both cases, the main hermeneutical problem will be ignored. After all, you will need to first understand the situation that has arisen, to realize what is right in it, and only then act according to this sense. Guided by those values that were not obtained through understanding, is fundamentally wrong. Only when the hermeneutic experience is realized does a person have self-consistency.
The dispute with deconstructivism
An important factor for the development of philosophical hermeneutics was the dialogue of Gadamer with Jacques Derrida. This French deconstructivist had his own point of view on the various theoretical nuances of the ideas of the German philosopher. During the dispute, methodological and methodological approaches to the problem of understanding were considered and clarified.
What are the differences between hermeneutics and deconstruction? Gadamer and Derrida did not agree on the idea of a dialogical relationship between the interpreter and the text, which allows us to more accurately understand the meaning of the message enclosed in the text. Proceeding from such a thought, in hermeneutics the probability of reconstruction of the original meaning is allowed. The position of deconstructivism is completely different. This doctrine suggests that the text has its own premises and foundations, and that he himself denies them, creating meaning with the help of this paradox.
The criticism of hermeneutics by deconstructivism also concerned its relationship with metaphysical thinking. Derrid argued that the idea of his opponent is nothing more than a continuation of metaphysics. He said that hermeneutics itself is logocentric. Imposing its rationality, it suppresses distinction and individuality, and also fetters the possibility of multiple interpretation of the existing text.
Gadamer did not agree with this. From his point of view, deconstruction and philosophical hermeneutics come from general principles. And all of them are a continuation of Heidegger's attempt to overcome metaphysics, as well as its language. Hydemer developed two paths to eliminate German idealism. The first of these is a transition from dialectics to a direct dialogue carried out by hermeneutics. The second is the path of deconstruction, where it is not about clarifying the meaning of dialogue already forgotten by a person, but about its disappearance in general due to dissolution in that variety of semantic connections that precede language. A similar state of things is fixed by Derrida in the ontological understanding of writing. This concept is the exact opposite of the Hydemer concept of conversation or dialogue. The essence of understanding and understanding does not lie in the meaning that is inherent in the word. It is in some information that takes place on top of the words found.
In this regard, with the common sources of these two philosophical trends, there are significant differences between them. They are manifested in the difference in research programs (conversation and writing), as well as in the interpretation of such a concept as meaning. According to Gadamer, he is always present, and according to Derrida, he is not at all.