Hermeneutics

Hermeneutics, or ‘the theory of interpretation,’ deals with the principles and processes instrumental in the course of interpretation, especially the interpretation of texts. Etymologically, the word, ‘hermeneutics’ is derived from the Greek verb hermeneuein and the noun hermeneia, to mean ‘to interpret’ or ‘interpretation’. Mythologically, it is related to Hermes, the Greek winged god, whose chief function was to interpret the messages of the Gods for human beings. Traditionally, it is linked to the rules for the interpretation of texts, especially the sacred and legal ones. The principles and processes relating to interpretation are quite relevant in humanities, particularly history. When Nietzsche said that “there are no facts but only interpretations,” he underlined the fundamental nature of the hermeneutic effort in history. After the linguistic and postmodern turn, the thinkers proposed a variety of possible interpretations to a text. According to Roland Barthes, “the author must die so that the reader may live.” In short, hermeneutics is the art of discovering meaning. The important hermeneutical thinkers are Friedrich Schleiermacher, Wilhelm Dilthey, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur. 

Key Thinkers

Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), who may be considered to be the ‘father of contemporary hermeneutics’ stressed the ‘Romantic’ aspect of the imaginary, creative, and emotional dimensions which come into play in the pronunciation and interpretation of texts. His philosophical hermeneutics had two aspects: a subjective or ‘psychological’ aspect and an objective or ‘grammatical’ aspect. The first belongs to the system of thought and the second to the system of language.

Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911), who was influenced by the positivistic spirit of the late nineteenth century, distinguished between the knowledge of the natural and the human sciences. To him, nature needed to be explained, while history needed to be understood. He hoped to formulate systematic rules for understanding historical phenomena, just as natural scientists had formulated systematic rules for explaining natural phenomena.

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), in Being and Time (1927), viewed understanding as a foundational aspect of one’s contextual situatedness or ‘being-in-the-world.’ Heidegger presented the process of understanding in terms of a projection of ontological (being in the world) possibilities rather than a fixed mental correspondence with reality.

Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) in his major work, Truth and Method (1960), clearly gives priority to ‘truth’ rather than the use of ‘method’ in the process of interpretation. Methodology indirectly adopts perspective-free objectivity which Gadamer argues is impossible.

Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005) agreed that there is always a ‘surplus of meaning’. In his later works, Ricoeur creatively expands the scope of hermeneutical theory to include the interpretation of human actions and narratives, to the extent that they have intellectual and communicative value.

Primary Themes within Hermeneutics

There are three primary dimensions of interpretation, viz., explanation, understanding and application.

Explanation: The focus of the explanation is on the validity of textual meaning. In explanation, the text is treated more like a window, whereby one sees through a text in order to explore its nature and origins, rather than like a mirror, wherein one stands before a text in order to understand it from within a particular context and guided by personal and social interests. Schleiermacher and Dilthey tend to focus on the ‘behind’ of the text so as to arrive at textual meaning in terms of the original intention of the author. In contrast to this position, Gadamer focuses primarily on the ‘forward’ of the text, or how it may be understood by various readers in various contexts. Ricoeur partially combines both of these positions.

Understanding: The question in understanding is about the nature of the hermeneutical circle or spiral. In the circular movement in hermeneutics, one cannot understand the whole text unless one becomes familiar with individual parts of the text, and one cannot understand the parts unless one has a sense of the whole. This circle becomes a spiral when a progressive interplay between the whole and the parts leads to a better understanding of both.

Application: It deals with the contextual application of interpretation. A balanced hermeneutical approach would employ both explanation and critique in order to arrive at more accurate, meaningful and objective interpretations of the text and of social phenomena in general.

Another theme of significance within interpretation theory is that of the contrast between the hermeneutics of trust and the hermeneutics of suspicion. The hermeneutics of trust functions from an ‘understanding’- based standpoint. The hermeneutics of suspicion functions from the perspective of critical theory. According to Ricoeur, the ‘masters of suspicion,’ are Marx (1818-1883), Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Freud (1856-1939). Each of them attempts radical questioning and even a rejection of what is commonly accepted.