Editing Hermeneutics (section)

=== Modern hermeneutics<!-- 'Epistemological hermeneutics', 'Straussian hermeneutics', 'Radical hermeneutics', 'Romantic hermeneutics', 'Methodological hermeneutics', 'Ontological hermeneutics', 'Hermeneutic idealism', 'Hermeneutic realism', 'Analytic hermeneutics' and 'Engaged hermeneutics' redirect here--> ===
The discipline of hermeneutics emerged with the new [[Humanism|humanist]] education of the 15th&nbsp;century as a historical and critical [[methodology]] for analyzing texts. In a triumph of early modern hermeneutics, the Italian humanist [[Lorenzo Valla]] proved in 1440 that the ''[[Donation of Constantine]]'' was a forgery. This was done through intrinsic evidence of the text itself. Thus hermeneutics expanded from its medieval role of explaining the true meaning of the Bible.

However, biblical hermeneutics did not die off. For example, the [[Protestant Reformation]] brought about a renewed interest in the interpretation of the Bible, which took a step away from the interpretive tradition developed during the Middle Ages back to the texts themselves. [[Martin Luther]] and [[John Calvin]] emphasized ''scriptura sui ipsius interpres'' (scripture interprets itself). Calvin used ''[[brevitas et facilitas]]'' as an aspect of [[theological hermeneutics]].<ref>Myung Jun Ahn, "Brevitas et facilitas : a study of a vital aspect in the theological hermeneutics of John Calvin" [https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/26944?show=full]</ref>

The rationalist [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] led hermeneutists, especially [[Protestant]] exegetists, to view Scriptural texts as secular classical texts. They interpreted Scripture as responses to historical or social forces so that, for example, apparent contradictions and difficult passages in the New Testament might be clarified by comparing their possible meanings with contemporary Christian practices.

[[Friedrich Schleiermacher]] (1768–1834) explored the nature of understanding in relation not just to the problem of deciphering sacred texts but to all human texts and modes of communication.

The interpretation of a text must proceed by framing its content in terms of the overall organization of the work. Schleiermacher distinguished between grammatical interpretation and psychological interpretation. The former studies how a work is composed from general ideas; the latter studies the peculiar combinations that characterize the work as a whole. He said that every problem of interpretation is a problem of understanding and even defined hermeneutics as the art of avoiding misunderstanding. Misunderstanding was to be avoided by means of knowledge of grammatical and psychological laws.

During Schleiermacher's time, a fundamental shift occurred from understanding not merely the exact words and their objective meaning, to an understanding of the writer's distinctive character and point of view.<ref name="ramberg">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hermeneutics/|title=Hermeneutics|author1=Bjorn Ramberg|author2=Kristin Gjesdal|encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|access-date=2017-09-12}}</ref>

Nineteenth- and twentieth-century hermeneutics emerged as a theory of understanding (''[[Verstehen]]'') through the work of [[Friedrich Schleiermacher]] ('''Romantic hermeneutics'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--><ref>[[Kurt Mueller-Vollmer]] (ed.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=CXY_h9rkUSUC&dq= ''The Hermeneutics Reader''], Continuum, 1988, p. 72.</ref> and '''methodological hermeneutics'''),<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--><ref>Edward Joseph Echeverria, ''Criticism and Commitment: Major Themes in Contemporary "Post-Critical" Philosophy'', Rodopi, 1981, p. 221.</ref> [[August Böckh]] (methodological hermeneutics),<ref>Thomas M. Seebohm, ''Hermeneutics: Method and Methodology'', Springer, 2007, p. 55.</ref> [[Wilhelm Dilthey]] ('''epistemological hermeneutics'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->),<ref>Jack Martin, Jeff Sugarman, Kathleen L. Slaney (eds.), ''The Wiley Handbook of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology: Methods, Approaches, and New Directions for Social Sciences'', Wiley Blackwell, p. 56.</ref> [[Martin Heidegger]] ('''ontological hermeneutics'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->,<ref>Martin Heidegger, ''Ontology: The Hermeneutics of Facticity'', Indiana University Press, 2008, p. 92.</ref> [[hermeneutic phenomenology]],<ref>[[Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka]], ''Phenomenology World-Wide: Foundations – Expanding Dynamics – Life-Engagements A Guide for Research and Study'', Springer, 2014, p. 246.</ref><ref>Cf. [[interpretative phenomenological analysis]] in psychological [[qualitative research]].</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Laverty|first=Susann M.|date=September 2003|title=Hermeneutic Phenomenology and Phenomenology: A Comparison of Historical and Methodological Considerations|journal=International Journal of Qualitative Methods|volume=2|issue=3|pages=21–35|doi=10.1177/160940690300200303|issn=1609-4069|doi-access=free}}</ref> and [[transcendental hermeneutic phenomenology]]),<ref name=stanford3.1>{{cite encyclopedia | first=Michael | last=Wheeler | url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heidegger/#TurCon |title=Martin Heidegger – 3.1 The Turn and the ''Contributions to Philosophy''|encyclopedia=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]|date=October 12, 2011|access-date=2016-12-04}}</ref> [[Hans-Georg Gadamer]] (ontological hermeneutics),<ref>Jeff Malpas, Hans-Helmuth Gande (eds.), ''The Routledge Companion to Hermeneutics'', Routledge, 2014, p. 259.</ref> [[Leo Strauss]] ('''Straussian hermeneutics'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->),<ref>Winfried Schröder (ed.), ''Reading between the lines – Leo Strauss and the history of early modern philosophy'', Walter de Gruyter, 2015, p. 39, "According to Robert Hunt, '[t]he Straussian hermeneutic ... sees the course of intellectual history as an ongoing conversation about important philosophical questions'."</ref> [[Paul Ricœur]] (hermeneutic phenomenology),<ref>[[Don Ihde]], ''Hermeneutic Phenomenology: The Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur'', Northwestern University Press, 1971, p. 198.</ref> [[Walter Benjamin]] ([[Marxist hermeneutics]]),<ref name=Erasmus>''Erasmus: Speculum Scientarium'', '''25''', p. 162: "the different versions of Marxist hermeneutics by the examples of [[Walter Benjamin]]'s ''[[The Origin of German Tragic Drama|Origins of the German Tragedy]]'' {{sic}}, ... and also by Ernst Bloch's ''[[The Principle of Hope|Hope the Principle]]'' {{sic}}."</ref> [[Ernst Bloch]] (Marxist hermeneutics),<ref name=AL>Richard E. Amacher, Victor Lange, ''New Perspectives in German Literary Criticism: A Collection of Essays'', Princeton University Press, 2015, p. 11.</ref><ref name=Erasmus/> [[Jacques Derrida]] ('''radical hermeneutics'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->, namely [[deconstruction]]),<ref>[[John D. Caputo]], ''Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction, and the Hermeneutic Project'', Indiana University Press, 1988, p. 5: "Derrida is the turning point for radical hermeneutics, the point where hermeneutics is pushed to the brink. Radical hermeneutics situates itself in the space which is opened up by the exchange between Heidegger and Derrida..."</ref><ref name = IIH>International Institute for Hermeneutics – [https://www.iihermeneutics.org/about-hermeneutics About Hermeneutics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160706000526/http://www.iihermeneutics.org/about-hermeneutics |date=2016-07-06 }}. Retrieved: 2015-11-08.</ref> [[Richard Kearney]] ([[diacritical hermeneutics]]), [[Fredric Jameson]] (Marxist hermeneutics),<ref name=Mohanty>Mohanty, Satya P. "Jameson's Marxist Hermeneutics and the need for an Adequate Epistemology." In ''Literary Theory and the Claims of History: Postmodernism, Objectivity, Multicultural Politics''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997. pp. 93–115.</ref> and [[John Thompson (sociologist)|John Thompson]] ([[critical hermeneutics]]).

Regarding the relation of hermeneutics with problems of [[analytic philosophy]], there has been, particularly among analytic Heideggerians and those working on Heidegger's [[philosophy of science]], an attempt to try and situate Heidegger's hermeneutic project in debates concerning [[Philosophical realism|realism]] and [[anti-realism]]: arguments have been presented both for Heidegger's '''hermeneutic idealism'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> (the thesis that meaning determines [[reference]] or, equivalently, that our understanding of the being of entities is what determines entities as entities)<ref>Steven Galt Crowell, Jeff Malpas (eds.), ''Transcendental Heidegger'', Stanford University Press, 2007, pp. 116–117.</ref> and for Heidegger's '''hermeneutic realism'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--><ref>[[Hubert L. Dreyfus]], Mark A. Wrathall (eds.), ''Heidegger Reexamined: Truth, realism, and the history of being'', Routledge, 2002, pp. 245, 274, 280; Hubert L. Dreyfus, "Heidegger's Hermeneutic Realism," in: David R. Hiley, James Bohman, Richard Shusterman (eds.), ''The Interpretive Turn: Philosophy, Science, Culture'', Cornell University Press, 1991.</ref> (the thesis that (a) there is a nature in itself and science can give us an explanation of how that nature works, and (b) that (a) is compatible with the ontological implications of our everyday practices).<ref>Hubert L. Dreyfus, Mark A. Wrathall (eds.), ''Heidegger Reexamined: Truth, realism, and the history of being'', Routledge, 2002, p. 245.</ref>

Philosophers that worked to combine analytic philosophy with hermeneutics include [[Georg Henrik von Wright]] and [[Peter Winch]]. Roy J. Howard termed this approach '''analytic hermeneutics'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->.<ref>Roy J. Howard, ''Three Faces of Hermeneutics: An Introduction to Current Theories of Understanding'', University of California Press, 1982, ch. 1.</ref>

Other contemporary philosophers influenced by the hermeneutic tradition include [[Charles Taylor (philosopher)|Charles Taylor]]<ref name="ramberg" /> ('''engaged hermeneutics'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->)<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Aarde|first=Andries G. Van|date=2009-08-07|title=Postsecular spirituality, engaged hermeneutics, and Charles Taylor's notion of hypergoods|url=https://hts.org.za/index.php/HTS/article/view/166|journal=HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies|language=en|volume=65|issue=1|page=210|issn=2072-8050}}</ref> and [[Dagfinn Føllesdal]].<ref name="ramberg" />

==== Dilthey (1833–1911) ====
[[Wilhelm Dilthey]] broadened hermeneutics even more by relating interpretation to historical objectification. Understanding moves from the outer manifestations of human action and productivity to the exploration of their inner meaning. In his last important essay, "The Understanding of Other Persons and Their Manifestations of Life" (1910), Dilthey made clear that this move from outer to inner, from expression to what is expressed, is not based on [[empathy]], understood as a direct identification with the [[Other (philosophy)|Other]]. Interpretation, on a hermeneutical conception of empathy<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gallagher |first1=Shaun |title=Dilthey and empathy. In E. S. Nelson (ed.), Interpreting Dilthey |date=2019 |publisher=Cambridge: Cambridge University Press |pages=145–158}}</ref> involves an indirect or mediated understanding that can only be attained by placing human expressions in their historical context. Thus, understanding is not a process of reconstructing the state of mind of the author, but one of articulating what is expressed in his work.

Dilthey divided sciences of the mind ([[human sciences]]) into three structural levels: experience, expression, and comprehension.

* Experience means to feel a situation or thing personally. Dilthey suggested that we can always grasp the meaning of unknown thought when we try to experience it. His understanding of experience is very similar to that of [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenologist]] [[Edmund Husserl]].
* Expression converts experience into meaning because the discourse has an appeal to someone outside of oneself. Every saying is an expression. Dilthey suggested that one can always return to an expression, especially to its written form, and this practice has the same objective value as an experiment in science. The possibility of returning makes scientific analysis possible, and therefore the humanities may be labeled as science. Moreover, he assumed that an expression may be "saying" more than the speaker intends because the expression brings forward meanings which the individual consciousness may not fully understand.
* The last structural level of the science of the mind, according to Dilthey, is comprehension, which is a level that contains both comprehension and incomprehension. Incomprehension means, more or less, ''wrong understanding''. He assumed that comprehension produces coexistence: "he who understands, understands others; he who does not understand stays alone."

==== Heidegger (1889–1976) ====
In the 20th&nbsp;century, [[Martin Heidegger]]'s philosophical hermeneutics shifted the focus from interpretation to [[Existentialism|existential]] understanding as rooted in fundamental ontology, which was treated more as a direct—and thus more authentic—way of being-in-the-world (''In-der-Welt-sein'') than merely as "a way of knowing."<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Harper and Row | last = Heidegger | first = Martin| title = Being and Time | url = https://archive.org/details/beingtime0000heid | url-access = registration | orig-year = 1927| year = 1962 | isbn = 9780060638504 }} p. H125</ref> For example, he called for a "special hermeneutic of empathy" to dissolve the classic philosophic issue of "other minds" by putting the issue in the context of the being-with of human relatedness. (Heidegger himself did not complete this inquiry.)<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Palgrave Macmillan | last = Agosta| first = Lou | title = Empathy in the Context of Philosophy | url = https://archive.org/details/empathyinthe_agos_2010_000_10406824 | url-access = registration | year = 2010 | isbn = 9780230241831}} p. 20</ref>

Advocates of this approach claim that some texts, and the people who produce them, cannot be studied by means of using the same [[scientific method]]s that are used in the [[natural science]]s, thus drawing upon arguments similar to those of [[antipositivism]]. Moreover, they claim that such texts are conventionalized expressions of the experience of the author. Thus, the interpretation of such texts will reveal something about the [[social context]] in which they were formed, and, more significantly, will provide the reader with a means of sharing the experiences of the author.

The reciprocity between text and context is part of what Heidegger called the [[hermeneutic circle]]. Among the key thinkers who elaborated this idea was the [[Sociology|sociologist]] [[Max Weber]].

==== Gadamer (1900–2002) ====
[[Hans-Georg Gadamer]]'s hermeneutics is a development of the hermeneutics of his teacher, Heidegger. Gadamer asserted that methodical contemplation is opposite to experience and reflection. We can reach the truth only by understanding or mastering our experience. According to Gadamer, our understanding is not fixed but rather is changing and always indicating new perspectives. The most important thing is to unfold the nature of individual understanding.

Gadamer pointed out that prejudice is an element of our understanding and is not ''per se'' without value. Indeed, prejudices, in the sense of pre-judgements of the thing we want to understand, are unavoidable. Being alien to a particular tradition is a condition of our understanding. He said that we can never step outside of our tradition—all we can do is try to understand it. This further elaborates the idea of the [[hermeneutic circle]].

==== New hermeneutic ====
[[New hermeneutic]] is the theory and methodology of interpretation to understand Biblical texts through [[existentialism]]. The essence of new hermeneutic emphasizes not only the existence of language but also the fact that language is eventualized in the history of individual life.<ref>(1999) Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation, R.N. Soulen, "Ernst Fuchs", by John Hayes, 422–423</ref> This is called the event of language. [[Ernst Fuchs (theologian)|Ernst Fuchs]],<ref>Ernst Fuchs, Briefe an&nbsp;Gerhard Ebeling, in: Festschrift aaO 48</ref> [[Gerhard Ebeling]], and [[James M. Robinson]] are the scholars who represent the new hermeneutics.

==== Marxist hermeneutics<!--'Marxist hermeneutics' redirects here--> ====
The method of '''Marxist hermeneutics'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> has been developed by the work of, primarily, [[Walter Benjamin]] and [[Fredric Jameson]]. Benjamin outlines his theory of the allegory in his study ''[[The Origin of German Tragic Drama|Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels]]''<ref name=Erasmus/> ("Trauerspiel" literally means "mourning play" but is often translated as "tragic drama").<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Verso | isbn = 978-1844673483 | last = Benjamin | first = Walter | title = Origin of the German Tragic Drama |year = 2009 }}</ref> [[Fredric Jameson]] draws on Biblical hermeneutics, [[Ernst Bloch]],<ref name=Kaufmann>David Kaufmann, "Thanks for the Memory: Bloch, Benjamin and the Philosophy of History," in ''Not Yet: Reconsidering Ernst Bloch'', ed. Jamie Owen Daniel and Tom Moylan (London and New York: Verson, 1997), p. 33.</ref> and the work of [[Northrop Frye]], to advance his theory of Marxist hermeneutics in his influential ''[[The Political Unconscious]]''. Jameson's Marxist hermeneutics is outlined in the first chapter of the book, titled "On Interpretation"<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Cornell University Press | isbn = 978-0-8014-9222-8 | last = Jameson | first = Fredric | title = The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act |year = 1982 }} pp. 17–102</ref> Jameson re-interprets (and secularizes) the fourfold system (or four levels) of Biblical exegesis (literal; moral; allegorical; anagogical) to relate interpretation to the [[mode of production]], and eventually, history.<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = Cornell University Press | isbn = 978-0801492846| last = Dowling | first = William C | title = Jameson, Althusser, Marx: Introduction to the Political Unconscious |year = 1984}}</ref>

==== Objective hermeneutics<!--'Objective hermeneutics' redirects here--> ====
[[Karl Popper]] first used the term "'''objective hermeneutics'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->" in his ''Objective Knowledge'' (1972).<ref>[[Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka]] (ed.), ''Phenomenology of Life – From the Animal Soul to the Human Mind: Book II. The Human Soul in the Creative Transformation of the Mind'', Springer, 2007, p. 312.</ref>

In 1992, the Association for Objective Hermeneutics (AGOH) was founded in [[Frankfurt am Main]] by scholars of various disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Its goal is to provide all scholars who use the methodology of objective hermeneutics with a means of exchanging information.<ref>[https://www.objective-hermeneutics.com/ Association for Objective Hermeneutics website.] Accessed: January 27, 2014.</ref>

In one of the few translated texts of this German school of hermeneutics, its founders declared:

{{quote|Our approach has grown out of the empirical study of family interactions as well as reflection upon the procedures of interpretation employed in our research. For the time being we shall refer to it as objective hermeneutics in order to distinguish it clearly  from  traditional  hermeneutic  techniques  and orientations.  The  general  significance  for  sociological  analysis  of objective hermeneutics issues from the fact that, in the social sciences, interpretive methods constitute the fundamental procedures of measurement and of the generation of research data relevant to theory. From our perspective, the standard, nonhermeneutic  methods of quantitative social research can only be justified because they permit a shortcut in generating data (and research "economy" comes about under specific conditions). Whereas  the conventional methodological attitude in the social sciences justifies qualitative approaches as  exploratory or preparatory activities, to be succeeded by standardized approaches and techniques as the actual scientific procedures (assuring  precision, validity, and objectivity), we regard hermeneutic  procedures as the basic method for gaining precise and valid knowledge in the social  sciences. However, we do not simply reject alternative approaches dogmatically. They are in fact useful wherever the loss in precision and objectivity necessitated by the requirement of research economy can be condoned and tolerated in the light of prior hermeneutically elucidated research experiences.<ref>Oevermann, Ulrich; Tilman Allert, Elisabeth Konau, and Jürgen Krambeck. 1987. "Structures of meaning and objective Hermeneutics." pp. 436–447 in Modern German sociology, European Perspectives: a Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism, edited by [[Volker Meja]], [[Dieter Misgeld]], and [[Nico Stehr]]. New York: Columbia University Press.</ref>|}}

==== Other recent developments ====
[[Bernard Lonergan]]'s (1904–1984) hermeneutics is less well known, but a case for considering his work as the culmination of the [[Postmodernism|postmodern]] hermeneutical revolution that began with Heidegger was made in several articles by Lonergan specialist [[Frederick G. Lawrence]].<ref>Frederick G. Lawrence, "Martin Heidegger and the Hermeneutic Revolution", "Hans-Georg Gadamer and the Hermeneutic Revolution", "The Hermeneutic Revolution and Bernard Lonergan: Gadamer and Lonergan on Augustine's Verbum Cordis – the Heart of Postmodern Hermeneutics", "The Unknown 20th-Century Hermeneutic Revolution: Jerusalem and Athens in Lonergan's Integral
Hermeneutics", ''[[Divyadaan: Journal of Philosophy and Education]]'' 19/1–2 (2008) 7–30, 31–54, 55–86, 87–118.</ref>

[[Paul Ricœur]] (1913–2005) developed a hermeneutics that is based upon Heidegger's concepts. His work differs in many ways from that of Gadamer. {{citation needed|date=April 2025}}{{vague|date=April 2025}}

[[Karl-Otto Apel]] (1922–2017) elaborated a hermeneutics based on American [[semiotics]]. He applied his model to [[discourse ethics]] with political motivations akin to those of [[critical theory]]. {{citation needed|date=April 2025}}

[[Jürgen Habermas]] (b. 1929) criticized the conservatism of previous hermeneutists, especially Gadamer, because their focus on tradition seemed to undermine possibilities for social criticism and transformation. {{citation needed|date=April 2025}} He also criticized [[Marxism]] and previous members of the [[Frankfurt School]] for missing the hermeneutical dimension of [[critical theory]].

Habermas incorporated the notion of the [[lifeworld]] and emphasized the importance for social theory of interaction, communication, labor, and production. {{citation needed|date=April 2025}} He viewed hermeneutics as a dimension of critical social theory. {{citation needed|date=April 2025}}

[[Rudolf Makkreel]] (b. 1939) has proposed an orientational hermeneutics that brings out the contextualizing function of reflective judgment. It extends ideas of [[Kant]] and [[Dilthey]] to supplement the dialogical approach of [[Gadamer]] with a diagnostic approach that can deal with an ever-changing and multicultural world. {{citation needed|date=April 2025}}

[[Andrés Ortiz-Osés]] (1943–2021) developed his [[symbolic hermeneutics]] as the [[Southern Europe|Mediterranean]] response to [[Northern Europe]]an hermeneutics. His main statement regarding symbolic understanding of the world is that [[Meaning (non-linguistic)|meaning]] is a [[symbol]]ic healing of injury.{{citation needed|date=April 2025}}

Two other important hermeneutic scholars{{according to whom|date=April 2025}} are [[Jean Grondin]] (b. 1955) and [[Maurizio Ferraris]] (b. 1956).

Mauricio Beuchot{{who|date=April 2025}} coined the term and discipline of [[analogic hermeneutics]]{{original research inline|date=April 2025}}, which is a type of hermeneutics that is based upon interpretation and takes into account the plurality of aspects of meaning. {{citation needed|date=April 2025}} He drew categories both from analytic and continental philosophy, as well as from the [[Thought|history of thought]]. {{vague|date=April 2025}}

Two scholars who have published criticism of Gadamer's hermeneutics are the Italian jurist [[Emilio Betti]] and the American literary theorist [[E. D. Hirsch]].