The Dialogical Concept of Meaning in H.-G. Gadamer's "Truth and Method" and its significance for Literary Hermeneutics

Abstract

The subject of the study in the article is the concept of meaning presented in one of the main philosophical works of the twentieth century – the book of the German philosopher H.-G. Gadamer "Truth and Method". Gadamer's concept of meaning is considered among those theories of meaning that can be defined as dialogical. In the humanitarian thought of the twentieth century, they oppose both objectivist (first of all, scientific) and subjectivist concepts of meaning. The dialogical concept of the meaning of Gadamer is considered in this work from the perspective of its significance for literary hermeneutics, namely, for comprehending the specifics of the meaning of a literary work. The scientific novelty of the work is determined by the fact that for the first time the author analyzes the characteristics of meaning presented implicitly in Gadamer's "Truth and Method", and also identifies those ideas of Gadamer that are of direct importance for clarifying the specifics of the meaning of a literary work. In the concept of the meaning of Gadamer, we distinguish the following main points: the meaning is intentional; the meaning is always correlated with several intentions; the meaning is eventful; self-identity is inherent in the meaning. For literary hermeneutics, such ideas of Gadamer are of particular importance: 1) the meaning in a work of art is freed from the "obscuring" moments of the semantic future; 2) the "game" is opposed to the "structure"; 3) in a work of art there is an "increase in the visibility" of being.