Hermeneutics and the Principle of Explicablility

Abstract

In Interpretation and Explanation in the Human Sciences, David Henderson unveils a proposal to displace previous conceptions of the interpretive enterprise with a holistic scheme encompassing the previously accepted Principle of Charity, while elegantly explaining its limitations. Not to stop short, Henderson goes on to illustrate the implications of his interpretive codification, branded the Principle of Explicability, for attributions of irrationality, and, more importantly, for the relation between the method of the human sciences and the natural sciences. As we shall presently show, and Henderson himself is aware, there are explicit similarities between his account of interpretation and accounts offered in the hermcneutic tradition, particularly with regards to the interpretive constraint of holism. However, the two traditions focus on different questions and problems. Henderson is concerned with issues stemming from the problem of radical translation, characteristic of his Anglo-American predecessors Quinc and Davidson; Hans-Georg Gadamcr, of the Continental school of hermeneutics, focuses on the issues involved in understanding a text, particularly that of another culture and time. While some differences in method will stem from differences of available evidence, the question with which we arc here concerned is this: Are basic concepts employed in the interpretive account presented by Henderson the same concepts employed by Gadamcr? What we intend to show is that the Principle of Explicability docs have applicability within the interpretive practices described in Gadamcr's On the Circle of Understanding, 2 demonstrating a link between the interpretive approaches of the Anglo-American and Continental Traditions. Differences in emphasis, however, point out the subtle variations between the accounts, contrasts which may raise questions about their further resolution. We will begin by detailing Henderson's account, turning then to Gadamcr in order to relate salient themes.