Hermeneutics: From the Problematic of Understanding to Method

Abstract

This study examines hermeneutics as a philosophy of understanding by tracing its historical development from the interpretation of religious texts to the comprehensive philosophical project formulated by Hans-Georg Gadamer. It reviews the contributions of major hermeneutic thinkers, particularly Schleiermacher, Dilthey, and Heidegger, before focusing on Gadamer's conception, which transcends rigid methodological approaches to interpretation. Gadamer presents understanding as a dialogical event grounded in language, tradition, and productive prejudices as the fundamental conditions of interpretation. The study further analyzes the relationship between truth and method, criticizing the positivist attempt to impose the methodology of the natural sciences upon the human sciences while emphasizing the distinctive nature of human understanding based on dialogue and the fusion of historical horizons. It concludes that Gadamerian hermeneutics restores the central role of language as the medium of understanding, dialogue as the path to truth, and tradition as the historical horizon within which interpretation is continually renewed, thereby presenting understanding as an ongoing human event that extends beyond the limits of methodological formalism.