The notable
(big gun) harbingers of general hermeneutics[1]
such as Wilhelm Dilthey, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Friedrich
Schleiermacher (all of whom, incidentally, have been labeled at one time or
another “the father of hermeneutics”) all subscribe to a certain “order” of
interpretation. These men, in contradiction with the likes of Rene Decartes who
summarily indicate reality is fundamentally in the mind, held that reality was indeed
“out there” to be discovered. Dilthey, as an exemplar of these hermeneutic
harbingers, proposed that reality is discoverable through “reflective
awareness” and that this process occurs in “lived in experience,” (Dilthey,
1954). Note carefully the perceptive order: a) reality is “out there;” b) to be interpreted via “reflective awareness;” c) which finds its basis in
story (“lived in experience).”
[1]
General hermeneutics (also referred to as ontological, philosophical, or
universal hermeneutics) refers to the interpretation of all life experiences,
not merely the interpretation of texts. For an understanding of this concept
and its historical roots, see Jean Grondin, Introduction
to Philosophical Hermeneutics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994) and
Michael N. Forster’s (University of Chicago) article on hermeneutics:
http://philosophy.uchicago.edu/faculty/files/forster/HERM.pdf
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