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1 year ago in Hermeneutics , Philosophy By Abhay R
Beyond its traditional use in textual interpretation, what is novel or distinctive about Heidegger’s conception of the hermeneutic circle in Being and Time?
In a phenomenology seminar, we're contrasting Schleiermacher's and Dilthey's hermeneutic circle with Heidegger's. For Heidegger, it seems the circle isn't just a methodological tool for interpreting texts, but a fundamental structure of Dasein's being-in-the-world. Could you clarify this ontological turn? How does the circle between pre-understanding (Vorhabe) and explicit interpretation reveal our existential condition? What role does fore-structure (Vorstruktur) play in making any understanding possible at all?
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By Jim Jonas Answered 1 year ago
Heidegger's radical move was to ontologize the hermeneutic circle. For him, it's not a methodological hazard to be minimized but the essential, positive structure of all human understanding. We are always already "thrown" into a world with a pre-ontological understanding of Being (Vorhabe). Any explicit act of interpretation (of a text, a tool, or our own existence) always proceeds from this background. The circle between our fore-structure (Vorstruktur—our specific projections and preconceptions) and the entity to be interpreted is not vicious but constitutive. It reveals that Dasein is fundamentally interpretive; understanding is our mode of being. The novelty lies in making hermeneutics not about "getting it right" from a neutral stance, but about acknowledging that we are always, inescapably, within the circle of meaning we are trying to illuminate.
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