Psychology Dictionary of Arguments

Home Screenshot Tabelle Begriffe

 
Understanding: the ability to give reasons for a distinction or to justify a selection of options. See also actions, meaning, knowledge.
_____________
Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

Friedrich Schleiermacher on Understanding - Dictionary of Arguments

Gadamer I 196
Understanding/Schleiermacher/Gadamer: Schleiermacher sees the act of understanding as the reconstructive execution of a production. Such an act has to make aware some things that can remain unconscious to the originator. It is obviously the aesthetics of genius that Schleiermacher transfers to his general hermeneutics with this formula. The creative method of the genius artist is the model case on which the theory of unconscious production and the necessary consciousness in reproduction is based(1).
Indeed, the formula thus understood can be considered a principle of all philology, provided that it is understood as the understanding of artful speech. The better understanding that distinguishes the interpreter from the author does not mean understanding the things that are mentioned in the text
but only the understanding of the text, i.e. what the author meant and expressed. This understanding can be called an understanding in so far as the explicit - and thus elevating - understanding of an opinion compared to the implementation of its content implies a greater knowledge. >Hermeneutics/Schleiermacher
.
Understanding/Schleiermacher: Schleiermacher [comes] to the conclusion that it is necessary to understand a writer better than he or she has understood him- or herself - a formula that has been repeated ever since and in whose changing interpretation the entire history of modern hermeneutics becomes apparent.
Gadamer I 198
GadamerVsSchleiermacheer: This ingenious methodical formula, which is still often used today and fought against as a carte blanche for arbitrary interpretation, does not give the guild of the philologists good credit.
Understanding/Fichte/Kant/Gadamer: [the formula also occurs in Fichte and Kant] (...) the context in which this alleged philological rule of craftsmanship appears shows that Fichte and Kant mean something quite different with this. This is not at all a principle of philology, but rather a claim of philosophy to get over contradictions to be found in a thesis by achieving greater conceptual clarity.
Gadamer: So it is a principle that, entirely in the spirit of rationalism, demands that, by thinking alone, by developing the consequences inherent in the concepts of an author, one should arrive at insights that correspond to the author's actual intention - insights that he or she would have to share if he or she had thought clearly enough. ((s) Cf. >Meaning Change/Philosophical Theories.)
Gadamer I 199
Gadamer: Someone who knows how to think better about what the author is talking about will be able to see what the author says in the light of a truth still hidden from that person. In this sense, the principle that one must understand an author better than he or she understood him- or herself is as old as scientific criticism in general.


1. H. Patsch has meanwhile explained the early history of Romantic hermeneutics in more detail: Friedrich Schlegel's "Philosophie of Philologie" and Schleiermacher's early drafts on hermeneutics (Ztschr. f. Theologie und Kirche 1966, pp. 434-472).

_____________
Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.
Schleiermacher, Friedrich
Gadamer I
Hans-Georg Gadamer
Wahrheit und Methode. Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik 7. durchgesehene Auflage Tübingen 1960/2010

Gadamer II
H. G. Gadamer
The Relevance of the Beautiful, London 1986
German Edition:
Die Aktualität des Schönen: Kunst als Spiel, Symbol und Fest Stuttgart 1977


Send Link

Authors A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   Z  


Concepts A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   Y   Z