Abstract

This dissertation examines the text as the reference of interpretation as interpretation generally is employed in the human sciences . It will investigate the fundamental question of understanding the text, from the standpoint of contemporary hermeneutics. The aim of this dissertation is to show that an adequate hermeneutical theory presupposes an understanding of being. One reason for pursuing this aim is a recent debate about the possibility of objectivity in interpretation. In particular, Emilio Betti does not want attention to the role of human subjectivity to undermine the place of the text as the source of objective criteria for interpretation. This issue is not simply a matter of epistemology, nor of choice between subjectivism and objectivism. Rather, it is a matter of drawing out the hermeneutical implications of respecting the role played by the understanding of being in interpretation. A principal source for the present investigation is the work by the other party to this debate, H.-G. Gadamer. ;The dissertation will be divided into four chapters. Chapter I will situate the issue in contemporary debates by looking at Betti's effort to resolve the question of the role of the text in terms of "objectivisation" in understanding. The chapter will advance Gadamer's critique of Betti's position and thereby show how Gadamer's thought transcends the issue of subjectivity and objectivity. ;Chapter II will unpack Gadamer's view that the task of hermeneutics is not to develop a method for interpretation, but to facilitate the understanding that takes place in the human sciences. The first part of the chapter will show that the consideration of the prejudicial conditions of understanding is necessary but insufficient as a theory of interpretation. The other part of the chapter will raise the question whether an adequate hermeneutical theory can avoid ontological issues. ;Chapter III will critically expand Gadamer's hermeneutic of prejudicial understanding to its ontological dimensions. In this respect the first task will be to show how, following Heidegger, Gadamer understands the text as the essential requirement of interpretation. A study of temporality will aid in showing that the text must be regarded as the reference of interpretation and that it determines the understanding. ;Chapter IV will draw the central conclusions from the previous chapters. It will show how the question of the text is inextricably tied to the question of ontological understanding in interpretation, conceived as the process of constructively unveiling the text. The last section will articulate some important consequences of taking the concept of the text as the fundamental question in human sciences, in poetry and in the study of Scripture.