Maya Synytsia
Professor Fedoriv
English for Master Programs
11 April 2013
Main
Ideas and Personalities in Historical Development of Hermeneutics as a General
Method
Hermeneutics is the art and theory of understanding and interpretation
of linguistic and non-linguistic expressions. It has a significant influence on
the development of contemporary philosophy, in spite of the fact that
hermeneutics became truly philosophical only in nineteenth century. It happened
when Friedrich Schleiermacher articulated a coherent conception of universal
hermeneutics that relates to linguistic meaning in general. Before that, the
problem of understanding was viewed only on the level of special hermeneutics,
without transition to the sphere of general theory of interpretation. Nevertheless,
its roots reach nearly the very beginning of Western philosophy. So, the aim of
this research is to reconstruct the path of hermeneutics from a special science
to a general method.
As a theory of interpretation, the hermeneutic tradition stretches all
the way back to ancient Greek philosophy. Ancient Greek word hermeneia, from which the term hermeneutics derives, was used in
everyday life and meant “translation”, or “interpretation”. The notion itself
was introduced into philosophy mainly through the title of Aristotle's work Peri Hermeneias ('On
Interpretation'), one of the earliest (circa 360 BC) philosophical works that examined
the relationship between language and logic in a comprehensive and explicit
way. Aristotle viewed interpretation as a panhuman ability, which is enabled by
adherence to certain recommendations and methods. On the other hand, his
teacher Plato depicted interpretation not as an art, but as a result of divine
intervention.
Middle Ages were a turning point in the history of hermeneutics. The view
of the problem of understanding resembled that of Plato, but adopted Christian
character. According to Christian beliefs, humans are narrow-minded due to
their nature, they prove to be unable to understand the design of God, so God
becomes the co-author of Bible, inspiring human beings to write it. Therefore,
the divine afflation of the author played a significant part in formation of
Great Kanon. Origen Adamantius, the first Christian hermeneutist, stated that
if writing required divine afflation, reading and interpretation of the written
required it, too (Shpet).
However, many controversies regarding interpretation of the Holy
Scripture appeared in the days of early Christianity, leading to development of
a considerable amount of heresies. Augustine of Hippo, one of major theological
hermeneutists of Middle Ages, examined this problem and proposed various
methods that could help to interpret the text correctly. He also developed some
of the notions and principles that later hermeneutists would use, such as the
notion of congeniality, a panhuman ability to see the same truths. Due to
congeniality, the interpreter is able to understand the author of the Bible,
the receiver of divine afflation, as if they are sharing this afflation (Augustine
112).
While Augustine distinguished among four types of interpretation of the
Holy Scripture: historical, allegorical, analogical and etiological, Thomas
Aquinas did not exclude literal interpretation, stating that numerous layers of
sense reach out to wider audience. Primitive readers are able to grasp only
literal meaning, however, under appropriate circumstances, additional sense
layers become intelligible. Literal interpretation is caused by corporeal
nature of humans, this is why Holy Scripture contains numerous metaphors,
determined by inability of human authors to perceive and describe divine nature
beyond corporeity (Thomas Aquinas 16).
The beginning of legal education, founded on systematical study of Roman
Civil law (circa XI century), became additional momentum for development of
hermeneutics. Legal education was based on dialectics as reconciliation of contradictions, and on the ground of
this dialectics, a special discipline – legal hermeneutics – appeared. Despite
the fact that the development of legal and theological hermeneutics took
parallel paths, in certain cases they integrated in order to complete specific
tasks (Kuznetsov).
Peculiarities of the Age of Renaissance were determined by a new
anthropological turn, which caused reconsideration of philosophical and
scientific accomplishments of the previous period, as well as religious
upheaval, which forced Christianity to review its dogmas and norms. Hermeneutics
had to consider the new requirements as well. In those days, its main purpose
was to fight religious dogmatism, so the most serious hermeneutical projects of
Reformation age belonged to Protestants, and later hermeneutist opposed even
protestant dogmatism: for instance, H.-G. Gadamer stated that F.
Schleiermacher’s hermeneutical project was based on such opposition (Gadamer
170). However, Martin Luther’s thesis
that Holy Scripture contains its own interpretation allowed to reject the idea
that a special science of interpretation of the Bible is required.
Due to provision of autonomy to individuality, hermeneutics withdrew
from theology and developed within other special disciplines. For example,
significant advances in the development of legal hermeneutics are associated
with Hugo Grotius, the author of the tractate On the Law of War and Peace, which is almost fully dedicated to
jurisprudence; however, chapter 16 of this book presents a remarkable example
of special legal hermeneutics. In this chapter, Grotius indicated problems that
may occur during the work with laws. In his opinion, legislative acts bear
contradictions not due to wrong wording, but because people tend to interpret
laws in arbitrary fashion, thus harming one another. Therefore, Hugo Grotius
developed a method of adequate understanding of laws for the purpose of
practical use. After Grotius, legal hermeneutics became part of general theory
of law.
Another thinker of that age, Matthias Flacius, introduced the concept of
contextual interpretation, based on the idea that the true sense is one and
objective in relation to the individual. Flacius, however, introduced the
concept of the context as well, thus enabling the text to gain new meanings and
interpretations. Moreover, Flacius also formulated the problem of hermeneutic
circle (Kuznetsov).
Projects of romanticists and their immediate predecessors have special
meaning for modern hermeneutics. Hermeneutical vocabulary evolved in this
period, and romantic hermeneutists guided the author of the first project of
general hermeneutics – Friedrich Schleiermacher.
Linguistic theory of Friedrich Wilhelm von Humboldt played a significant
part in formation of general hermeneutics. Humboldt analyzed language tools and
peculiarities of functioning of different notions in different languages, and
formulated a theory, according to which language appears as a result of
continuous process of development of a nation, while the mentality of the
nation as an integral entity can be seen through the lens of language.
Correlation of language and the mentality of the nation constitutes something
similar to a hermeneutical circle, in which the mentality of a nation is not understood
without knowledge of the language, but knowledge of the language demands
understanding of the mentality.
August Böckh in his hermeneutical project proposed to conduct a specific
experiment in order to comprehend the role of cognition and its possibility: to
view all sciences as philosophies, which suggests specific correlation of
scientific and humane spheres. As a protestant, he assumed two main principles
of an individual: spiritual and material, and according to this he divided
sciences into those that are oriented to material or spiritual sphere of life.
However, philology takes a special place in this system: it lies on the border
of these two spheres and it is able to cognize what is given in advance, namely
sense. Sense for Böckh lies in the meaning of the text, however, its truth is
secondary, since the creator of the text has already discovered it. The demand
to learn what others learned before resonates with Schleiermacher’s motto of
hermeneutics: to know the author better than they knew themselves.
Specific spiritual movement of philological hermeneutics had impact on
the formation of general theory of interpretation as well. For example,
spiritual interpretation, proposed by Friedrich Ast, definitely correlates with
Schleiermacher’s psychological approach. Besides, Schleiermacher mentions Ast
as the author of the best articulation of the problem of hermeneutic circle:
Formulated by Ast and in many ways rather well
explained hermeneutical foundation, according to which the whole is understood
from the part, and the part, in its turn, may be understood only from the
whole, is so universal and undeniable for the art of hermeneutics, that even
the primary hermeneutical operations cannot be performed without using it.
Indeed, most of hermeneutical rules are based on it to a greater or lesser
extent. (Schleiermacher 440)
Philological hermeneutics was not the only one to play significant role
in scientific life of the day, however. Johann Martin Chladni (Chladenius)
strived to use hermeneutics to analyze history instead of the texts of the Holy
Scripture. Thus, he extended the sphere of influence of hermeneutics, redefined
it in terms of logic, and underpinned it with scientific arguments (Kuznetsov).
Chladenius’ another significant achievement was his project of pedagogical
hermeneutics. Gadamer states that Chladenius reproached his time for loss of
the ability to reason spontaneously. From the point of view of pedagogics, the
disadvantage of this phenomenon lies in the fact that an intellectual abyss
inevitably appears between the teacher and the student. Chladenius proposed to use hermeneutics in
order to overcome this problem, shifting its target from distinguishing the
truth in the text to explanation of obscurities (Gadamer 172).
Such special projects, as historical hermeneutics, presented by Barthold
Georg Niebuhr and Leopold von Ranke, or literary hermeneutics, created by the
Schlegel brothers and Novalis, have significant meaning, too. However, the
philological hermeneutics gave primary momentum for formation of general theory
of interpretation, and Friedrich Schleiermacher retained its inherent
orientation to the language component, which later found broad response in his
successors’ works.
It can be concluded that hermeneutics had a long history before it
became a general theory of interpretation, reaching
back at least as far as ancient Greece. However, it took the most important
step in the age of Romanticism, when it was viewed mostly within philology.
Even though Friedrich Schleiermacher, the author of the first philosophical
theory of hermeneutics, belonged to the romanticist movement only partially,
his hermeneutical project emerged from it.
Works
Cited (MLA Style)
Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica.
Kyiv: Elga, 2007. Print
Augustine of Hippo. On Christian
Doctrine. Kyiv: Kyiv-Pechersk Laura, 1835. Print
Bohachov, Andrii. Experience and
Sense. Kyiv: Duh i Litera, 2012. Print.
Dilthey, Wilhelm. "Schleiermacher's Hermeneutical System in
Relation to Earlier Protestant Hermeneutics". Hermeneutics and the Study of History. Web.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Truth and
Method. Kyiv: Universe, 2000. Print.
Kuznetsov, Valerii. Hermeneutics
and its path from a specific method to a school of thought. Web.
Plato. Ion. Web.
Schleiermacher, Friedrich. "On the Concept of Hermeneutics, with
reference to F.A. Wolfs Instructions and Ast's Textbook". Doxa (August 2008). Odessa: Odessa
National University. Print.
Shpet, Gustav. “Hermeneutics and its problems”. Context (1991). Moscow: Nauka. Print.
Works Cited (APA Style)
1.
Thomas Aquinas.
(2007). Summa Theologica. Kyiv: Elga.
2.
Augustine of
Hippo. (1835). On Christian Doctrine.
Kyiv: Kyiv-Pechersk Laura.
3.
Bohachov, A. (2012).
Experience and Sense. Kyiv: Duh i Litera.
4.
Dilthey, W. Schleiermacher's Hermeneutical System in Relation to Earlier
Protestant Hermeneutics. Hermeneutics and
the Study of History. Retrieved from: http://www.questia.com/library/104388010/hermeneutics-and-the-study-of-history/.
5.
Gadamer, H.-G.
(2000) Truth and Method. Kyiv: Universe.
6.
Kuznetsov, V. (1999,
October) Hermeneutics and its path from a
specific method to a school of thought. Retrieved from: http://www.ruthenia.ru/logos/number/1999_10/04.html/.
7.
Plato. Ion. Retrieved from: http://www.philosophy.ru/library/plato/ion.html/.
8.
Schleiermacher, F.
(2008, August)."On the Concept of Hermeneutics, with reference to F.A.
Wolfs Instructions and Ast's Textbook". Doxa. Odessa: Odessa National University.
9.
Shpet, G. (1991).
Hermeneutics and its problems. Context.
Moscow: Nauka.
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