Psychology Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Hermeneutic circle: The hermeneutic circle is a process of interpretation in which the whole and its parts are mutually illuminating. It is a recursive process in which the interpreter moves back and forth between the whole text and its individual parts in order to arrive at a comprehensive understanding. See also Hermeneutics._____________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. | |||
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Friedrich Schleiermacher on Hermeneutic Circle - Dictionary of Arguments
Gadamer I 193 Hermeneutic Circle/Schleiermacher/Gadamer: Schleiermacher follows Friedrich Ast and the entire hermeneutic-rhetorical tradition, when he recognizes as an essential basic feature of understanding that the meaning of the individual is always only ever derived from the context and thus ultimately from Gadamer I 194 the whole. This sentence applies as a matter of course to the grammatical understanding of each sentence up to the point where it is placed in the context of the whole of a literature... or of a work yes, up to the whole of literature or of the literary genre. But Schleiermacher now applies it to the psychological understanding which must understand every thought formation as a moment of life in the total context of that person. It has always been clear that logically seen here there is a circle, provided that the whole, from which the individual is to be understood, is not given before the individual - unless in the manner of a dogmatic canon (as the Catholic and as we saw, to a certain extent also guides the Reformation's understanding of Scripture), or a preliminary concept of the spirit of a time analogue to it (as Ast presupposes the spirit of antiquity in the manner of presentiment). Solution: Schleiermacher, however, explains that such dogmatic guidelines cannot claim any prior validity and are therefore only relative limitations of the circle. Basically, understanding always means moving in such circles, so the repeated return from the whole to the parts and vice versa is essential. In addition, this circle is constantly expanding, as the concept of the whole is a relative one, and its placement in ever larger contexts always affects the understanding of the individual. Gadamer I 296 Hermeneutic Circle/Schleiermacher/Gadamer: [Schleiermacher differentiated the] hermeneutic circle of part and whole according to its objective as well as its subjective side. Just as the individual word belongs to the context of the sentence, so the individual text belongs to the context of the writer's work, and the latter to the whole of the literary genre or literature in question. On the other hand, however, the same text, as a manifestation of a creative moment, belongs to the whole of the soul life of its author. Only in such a whole, both objective and subjective, can understanding be completed. Dilthey: Following this theory, Dilthey then speaks of "structure" and of "centering in a center" from which the understanding of the whole emerges. He thus transfers to the historical world what has always been a principle Gadamer I 297 of all interpretation of texts: that one must understand a text from within oneself. GadamerVsSchleiermacher: But it is questionable whether the circular movement of understanding is so adequately understood. Here we have to go back to the result of our analysis of Schleiermacher's hermeneutics. (>Hermeneutics/Schleiermacher). What Schleiermacher has developed as a subjective interpretation may be put aside completely. 1 GadamerVsSchleiermacher: When we try to understand a text, we do not put ourselves in the author's mental state, but if we want to speak of putting ourselves in the author's place, we put ourselves in the perspective under which the other person has come to his or her opinion. That means nothing else but that we seek to accept the factual right of what the other person says. We will even, if we want to understand, try to reinforce his or her arguments. 2. GadamerVsSchleiermacher: (...) also the objective side of this circle, as Schleiermacher describes it, does not get to the heart of the matter (...): The goal of all understanding and comprehension is the agreement on the matter. Thus hermeneutics has always had the task of establishing absent or disturbed agreement. The history of hermeneutics can confirm this, if one thinks, for example, of Augustine, where the Old Testament is to be communicated with the Christian message(1), or of early Protestantism, which was faced with the same problem(2), or finally of the age of Enlightenment, where it admittedly comes close to a renunciation of consent, if the "perfect understanding" of a text is to be achieved only by means of historical interpretation. It is now something qualitatively new when Romanticism and Schleiermacher establish a historical consciousness of a universal scope by no longer allowing the binding form of the tradition from which they come and in which they stand to be a firm foundation for all hermeneutic endeavour. Gadamer I 298 Schleiermacher (...) succeeds (...) in establishing harmony with the ideal of objectivity of the natural sciences, but only by [renouncing] to bring the concretion of historical consciousness to the fore in hermeneutical theory. HeideggerVsSchleiermacher/Gadamer: Heidegger's description and existential foundation of the hermeneutic circle, on the other hand, means a decisive turn. >Hermeneutic Circle/Heidegger. 1. Cf. for this: G. Ripanti, Agostino teoretico del' interpretazione. Brescia 1980 2. Cf. M. Flacius; Clavis Scripturae sacrae seu de Sermone sacrarum literarum, lib.II, 1676_____________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 |
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