Hermeneutics: Interpretation Theory in Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, and Gadamer (review)

114 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Hermeneutics: Interpretation Theory in Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, and Gadamer. By Richard E. Palmer. (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1969. Pp. xviii+283. $9.00) This is a useful introduction for the English reader to hermeneutics, a field which is receiving much attention from German philosophers today. While providing an extended historical account focused on the contributions to hermeneutics by Schleiermacher , Dilthey, Heidegger and Gadamer, Palmer also aims to give a more inclusive and systematic discussion of the nature of the theory of interpretation itself. In part I of the book, he deals with problems concerning the definition, scope and significance of hermeneutics. In part II, he treats the above mentioned thinkers and contrasts their respective theoretical foundations for hermeneutics. In the last part of the book, he gathers some of the different insights developed along the way into a "manifesto" of thirty theses designed to help solve a "crisis" of literary criticism in America. The one drawback in using both the historical and systematic approaches is that the actual development of Palmer's theme tends to be fragmentary. The same points of information are repeated in different contexts, and no systematic viewpoint is coherently worked out. Because the conceptual investigations precede the strictly historical exposition, they serve primarily as a schematism for understanding the history of hermeneutics. The six modern definitions of hermeneutics that Palmer fists in part I (p. 33) cannot be fully evaluated as genuine possibilities until we have concluded the historical p_art II. The first two definitions, that of hermeneutics as "(I) the theory of biblical exegesis," and as "(2) a general philological methodology," are dismissed outright as too narrow to provide an adequate characterization of hermeneutics. These definitions are brought in only to explain the origin of modern hermeneutics. By contrast, the last definition of hermeneutics, that provided by Paul Ricoeur in his recent work, De l'interprdtation: Essai sur Freud, is treated as something of a postscript. It defines hermeneutics as "(6) the systems of interpretation, both recollective and iconoclastic, used by man to reach the meaning behind myths and symbols." This definition is in effect regarded as being too broad since one of the alternatives offered by Ricoeur-iconoclastic demystification--is never seriously considered. In the final manifesto of the book, the other alternative---recollective interpretation, or "demythologizing" as Palmer calls it--is claimed to be the task of literary criticism. (cf. p. 251) Palmer's most detailed analysis is reserved for definitions 3-5. Schleiermacher is discussed as a representative of the viewpoint that hermeneutics is "(3) the science of all linguistic understanding." His importance is attributed to the fact that he was able to widen the base of hermeneutics so that it became more than simply a philological aid for the classicist or a canonical guide for the Bible reader. Schleiermacher considered hermeneutics to be a fundamental study of the relation of textual interpretation to the understanding of all linguistic expressions. Dilthey continued Schleiermacher's work. His special contribution is seen to lie in having converted understanding from a purely psychological act into a psycho-historical method. Dilthey's great sense of history allowed him to redefine hermeneutics as "(4) the methodological foundation of Geisteswissenschaften." But this is still regarded as too limited a conception of hermeneutics , and Dilthey serves to introduce Heidegger and Gadamer, two theorists BOOK REVIEWS 115 who define hermeneutics as "(5) phenomenology of existence and of existential understanding ." Palmer is thus more sympathetic to Heidegger for whom hermeneutics is no longer a special method but a general Interpretation of Being. HansGeorg Gadamer is credited with developing the implications of Heidegger's views by making hermeneutics a strictly philosophical inquiry into the nature of interpretive understanding. The book is dedicated to Gadamer, and more than fifty pages are devoted to an exposition of his major work, Wahrheit und Methode (1960), which Palmer views as "a decisive event in the development of modern hermeneutical theory." (p. 162) Palmer asserts that like the New Critics in America, Gadamer stresses the importance of focusing on the text and not on the author's intention. However, he differs from the New Criticism by not treating the text as an object...