H e r m e n e V t I k a in humanistika II

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language, but it does not need to occur always in the same language. Every

conversation has a lingual character, even if this is a conversation one has with

oneself (soliloquium). Conversation is the way in which we come to under-

stand both ourselves and the matter that needs to be thought through. In a

conversation, the main concern of the participants is not to win the argument,

but to deepen their understanding and, as such, to contribute to building a more

human culture of life, a task that becomes more and more important in the

increasingly global structure of the world in which we live. Hermeneutic sig-

nificance of the work of art is decisively developed by following Gadamer’s

sharp critique of “aesthetic consciousness;” we can talk about the hermeneutic

centrality of the work of art in revealing truth. Truth experienced as the event

of meaning overwhelms us. By participating in that event we listen to the art

that speaks to us in an unprecedented way by situating ourselves between con-

cealment and unconcealment.

In recent years, the bibliography of hermeneutic literature has increased sig-

nificantly, showing the diversity of the Wirkungsgeschichte of the pioneering

work of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur, who, sadly, are no longer

with us. They are irreplaceable and will be dearly missed. We are filled with

sorrow, but our sorrow is an expression of gratitude for the gift of their think-

ing. In the infinite “conversation that we are” they will always have a voice.

Phenomenological hermeneutics as developed by Heidegger, who moved phe-

nomenology in a direction which Husserl himself had made possible is a style

of thinking, is a philosophical attitude rather than a school labeled for the sake

of simplified classification. The development of phenomenology follows a cer-

tain internal logic dictated by the things themselves. For both Husserl and

Heidegger the proper subject of phenomenology is the meaningful as such.

What differentiates these two thinkers is the structure and mode of accessing

the meaningful. Heidegger is situated in the horizon of his understanding of

truth as •8Z2g4". Tracing Heidegger’s development from his hermeneutics

of facticity to the hermeneutics of the word, 8‚(@H §P@< .@@<, an existence-

giving Logos will be placed in the center of hermeneutic phenomenology. Truth

as disclosure will preserve the unconcealed in its unconcealedness. Heideg-

ger’s development of hermeneutics as Auslegung to hermeneutics as Andenken

can be seen as his decisive contribution to the hermeneutic tradition, which has

been further transformed and radicalized in Gadamer by paying special atten-

tion to the notion of truth and understanding. As Gadamer himself noted, phi-

losophers are thinkers whose identity is to be found in the continuity of their

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thought. By addressing our hermeneutic heritage we want to re-address the

most important of questions: the question of Being, which Being asks us. Lin-

gual and personalistic hermeneutics thematizes the other as the person: the text

is always his or her voice that confronts the face of a reader.

A special place in the historical development of phenomenology and herme-

neutics belongs to Paul Ricoeur. In the constructive encounter of phenomenol-

ogy with hermeneutics we develop the different perspectives that are opening

up an intense dialogue with other philosophical traditions. Phenomenological

description, interpretive narration, and discursive argumentation are dialecti-

cally related and, as part of a “practical whole,” they are essentially comple-

mentary to each other. By addressing the phenomenological moments in the

philosophical tradition we discover the crucial issues of historicity and the na-

ture of the phenomenon. The radicalization of the phenomenological reduction

brings fully to light the matter at hand. A connection between the radical re-

duction and existence as such is shown by exploring death and holiness. If the

task of the philosopher is to understand that which needs to be understood, the

hermeneutic question of the quality of an interpretation needs to be asked with

ever greater sensitivity. By encouraging a variety of interpretations, hermeneu-

tics decisively states that not every interpretation is equal.

An interesting phenomenon in the development of phenomenological herme-

neutics is the movement toward the theological, which originated within French

phenomenology.

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 The now famous term “the theological turn in phenomenol-

ogy” encompasses the increasing interest in exploring and analyzing tradition-

ally theological themes, religious experience in particular. Dominique Janicaud

is well known for his very critical position on the lack of methodological justi-

fication for the theological turn within French phenomenology. According to

Janicaud, phenomenology is moving away from being the science of things as

they are given, toward a theological meditation on phenomena of religious

experience. Janicaud’s position is contrary to that of Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-

Luc Marion, Paul Ricoeur, Michel Henry, Jean-Louis Chrétien, and Jean-Fran-

çois Courtine. For Janicaud, the concern for the theological and rather than the

philosophical is an error of choice, the wrong methodology thus modifying the

phenomenology of the absolute toward being a transgression of phenomenol-

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 Dominique Janicaud, Le tournant théologique de la phénoménologie française (Combas: Éd. de

l’Éclat, 1991).

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