Receptivity and Creativity in Hermeneutics: From Gadamer to Onto-Hermeneutics (Part One)

Abstract

There are two aspects of the hermeneutic: the receptive and the creative. In this article, first of all, I shall identify the strengths of these two aspects of the hermeneutic in the main development of hermeneutics in Western world. Heidegger and Gadamer take ontological receptivity as the source of the meaning of existence as well as the meaningfulness of texts. In my view such a form of receptivity has shaped the predominant paradigm of hermeneutic thinking in contemporary Europe or West. Therefore, I move to the creative formation and positive projection of a transformative cosmological philosophy, namely the Yijing《易經》philosophy in Chinese tradition. In these two contrasts we shall not only notice the strong divergence between the two paradigms but come to see how receptivity and creativity of the hermeneutic could be divergently identified and located in concrete understanding of nature of reality and nature of the human being.