Abstract

It seems that everything in hermeneutics begins with the question and that the very phenomenon of hermeneutics is regarded by contemporary philosophy more as a question than as a concept. It is for this very reason that it seems necessary to start a hermeneutic discussion on the possibility of philosophy as principally critical thinking, which does not only attempt to rehabilitate its previous greatness. Philosophical hermeneutics cannot accept the role of merely providing an alternative answer to the question of the possibility of philosophy, nor should it seek and find the answer in what philosophy used to be. Philosophical hermeneutics cannot impose itself neither as a new nor as a different response to philosophy. Rather, it must first and foremost respond to its question, and through this only, following Schleiermacher, hermeneutics is an ability of understanding the language of the other. And of course, we have to ask ourselves straight away, where, on which spot, from which side should philosophical hermeneutics approach this issue?