Phronesis – hermeneutic rationality

Abstract

The paper is an attempt to rethink the problem of rationality in the humanities in the context of hermeneutics. The author argues that this concept of rationality must be founded on the Aristotelian concept of practical reason (phronesis). Phronesis is a need for discernment of the self or rather to find itself in its own, tangible, specific situation. This understanding concerns Being-inthe-world and belongs to what in Martin Heidegger’s ontohermeneutics we can determine precisely as understanding in the hermeneutic sense.