Hermeneutics Basics
Hermeneutics Basics
The Who, What, Where, When, and Why of Hermeneutics
Beginnings
Many ages ago our first ancestors realized they could make grunting noises or scribble on the walls of their caves if Biff wanted to make a point about his neighbor Trog’s inferior spear or if th...
Big Players
Friedrich Schleiermacher and Wilhelm Dilthey were the heavy hitters in early hermeneutics—heck, they pretty much invented the game and started selling crackerjacks. Schleiermacher had two big goa...
Key Debates
While the philosophers working to unlock hermeneutic doors tended to agree that interpretation generally happens and also involves some kind of rules, they didn’t all stand before the same passag...
State of the Theory
People don’t exactly line up for books on hermeneutics like for the latest Harry Potter, and its theorists don’t quite have the Twitter following of Kanye West, but the theory’s not going awa...
Talking the Talk
What is literature? According to the Gadamer variety of hermeneutics, each work of literature is an event. It’s an experience in which meaning happens, again and again, each time it is read. Mean...