Phenomenological Reviews

Book | Chapter

176779

The hermeneutics of texts

Thomas M. Seebohm

pp. 137-152

Abstract

The second canon is the canon of the whole and the parts and implies the hermeneutical circle between the whole and the parts: understanding the whole presupposes understanding the parts and vice versa. The task of this essay is not to solve the methodological difficulties of the practical application of the canon to texts and their contexts. Such a solution would require a complicated and lengthy investigation of the different aspects of the application of the canon to the methodology of philological text interpretation and historical research concerning the original contexts of texts. A brief sketch of one simple aspect of the application of the second canon will be given in the last section. Yet even such a sketch presupposes an analysis of the material ambiguities and formal paradoxes of the second canon. The central task of this essay is to provide such an analysis. The first section of this essay discusses the material ambiguities and equivocations behind the terms "whole," "part," and "circle" in the development of hermeneutics. The second section offers an analysis of the formal problems of the circularity of the second canon from a logical point of view and the third section offers a version of the formula which eliminates the formal paradoxes of the second canon.

Publication details

Published in:

Babich Babette (2002) Hermeneutic philosophy of science, van Gogh's eyes, and God: essays in Honor of Patrick A. Heelan, S.J.. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 137-152

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-1767-0_11

Full citation:

Seebohm Thomas M (2002) „The hermeneutics of texts“, In: B. Babich (ed.), Hermeneutic philosophy of science, van Gogh's eyes, and God, Dordrecht, Springer, 137–152.