The Transformation of Hermeneutics

Abstract

Hermeneutics is one of those archaic and refractory, yet fashionable words which seem to crop up in so many places that they take on power all their own. E. D. Hirsch has observed that the word has become a rather vague, magical talisman.1 For better or worse hermeneutics has entered into the theoretical controversies of literary criticism, history, sociology, anthropology, political science, philosophy?not only the theory of the humane disciplines but even the theory of the natural sciences. This essay will attempt to examine distinction which has become deep ly engrained in the discussion of hermeneutics, that is, the distinction between or hermeneutics?identified with the current of German thought stretching from Humboldt and Schleiermacher through Droysen and Dilthey?and or hermeneutics, which is identified with Heidegger and some of his students, such as Rudolf Bultmann, Ludwig Binswanger, and most notably Hans-Georg Gadamer. The older, methodological hermeneutics is said to be primarily concerned with the justification of interpretive understanding as knowledge or science (Wis senschaft), while the newer, ontological hermeneutic is claimed to be con cerned with different matters altogether. The major principles of the traditional hermeneutics were laid down in the course of the 19th century, while those of the radical position have been articulated over the last fifty years, since the publication of Heidegger's Sein und Zeit in 1927. For the sake of brevity it seems appropriate to speak of battle of 19th century ancients and 20th century moderns fought over the grounds of interpretation-theory. The battle is by no means over, nor can one assume that it has been decided in favor of the moderns. On the one hand, number of contemporary thinkers such as Emilio Betti and E. D. Hirsch have restated and refined the case of the ancients; on the other, the moderns' position has been defended by other contemporary commentators such as Richard Palmer and David Hoy. At the risk of making matters even more complicated, it is necessary to point out that third position, which attempts