more from 'works' by Friedrich Schleiermacher

Single Idea 5435

[catalogued under 1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 3. Hermeneutics]

Full Idea

Schleiermacher proposed that an interpreter of a text may be in a better position to see the author's life and work and historical setting as a whole, and so understand the text better than its author.

Gist of Idea

An interpreter of a text, because of wider knowledge, can understand it better than its author

Source

report of Friedrich Schleiermacher (works [1825]) by Thomas Mautner - Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy p.248

Book Reference

Mautner,Thomas: 'Dictionary of Philosophy' [Penguin 1997], p.248


A Reaction

This sounds like a very quaintly old-fashioned enlightenment view which has been swept away by post-modernism, which is why I agree with it. We have a perspective on Descartes now which he could never have dreamt of.