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Single Idea 20927

[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 8. The Arts / b. Literature ]

Full Idea

The 'hermeneutic circle' of understanding is not between the author and the reader, but between my understanding myself in my own world, and the world projected by the text, with its possibilities for life.

Gist of Idea

The hermeneutic circle is between the reader's self-understanding, and the world of the text

Source

Jens Zimmermann (Hermeneutics: a very short introduction [2015], 4 'How texts')

Book Ref

Zimmerman,Jens: 'Hermeneutics: very short introduction' [OUP 2015], p.67


A Reaction

I'm not much of a fan of hermeneutics, but this idea seems quite important. Readings of Dickens in1860, 1930 and 2020 are very different events. For example, which parts catch the reader's interest, or jar with their sensibilities?


The 11 ideas with the same theme [philosophical aspects of literature]:

Without the surface decoration, poetry shows only appearances and nothing of what is real [Plato]
Poetry is more philosophic than history, as it concerns universals, not particulars [Aristotle]
Tragedies are versified sufferings of people impressed by externals [Epictetus]
Homer wrote to show that the most blessed men can be ruined by poor judgement [Epictetus]
For poets free choice is supreme [Schlegel,F]
Literature is the most important aspect of culture, because it teaches understanding of living [Murdoch]
The author function of any text is a plurality of selves [Foucault, by Gutting]
All great poetry is engaged in rivalry with mathematics [Badiou]
Storytelling is never neutral; some features of the world must be emphasised [Nussbaum]
Wallace Stevens is the greatest philosophical poet of the twentieth century in English [Critchley]
The hermeneutic circle is between the reader's self-understanding, and the world of the text [Zimmermann,J]