Metaphor and the Main Problem of Hermeneutics

SASSUME IN THIS PAPER that the main problem of hermeneutics is that of interpretation. Not interpretation in any undetermined sense of the word, but interpretation with two qualifications: one concerning its scope or field of application, the other its epistemological specificity. As concerns the first point, I should say that there are problems of interpretation because there are texts, written texts, the autonomy of which (as regards either the intention of the author, or the situation of the work, or the destination to privileged readers) creates specific problems; these problems are usually solved in spoken language by the kind of exchange or intercourse which we call dialogue or conversation. With written texts, the discourse must speak by itself. Let us say, therefore, that there are problems of interpretation because the relation writing-reading is not a particular case of the relation speakinghearing in the dialogical situation. Such is the most general feature of interpretation as concerns its scope or application field. Secondly, the concept of interpretation occurs, at the epistemological level, as an alternative concept opposed to that of explanation (or explication); taken together, they both form a significant contrasting pair, which has given rise to many philosophical disputes in Germany since the time of Schleiermacher and Dilthey; according to that tradition, interpretation has specific subjective implications, such as the involvement of the reader in the process of understanding and the reciprocity between text-interpretation and self-interpretation. This reciprocity is usually known as the hermeneutical circle and has been opposed, mainly by logical positivists, but also for opposite reasons by Romantic thinkers, to the kind of objectivity and to the lack of selfinvolvement which is supposed to characterize a scientific explanation of things. I shall say later to what extent we may be led to amend and even to rebuild on a new basis the opposition between interpretation and explanation. Anyhow, this schematic description of the concept of interpretation