Viktor Nikolenko Hermeneutic circle is a conceptual model of the interpretative process that describes the interpretation as a reciprocal interrelation

between the meaning of the whole text and its separate parts: the semantics of a complete work is derived from the signification of its elements and the sense of the elements is preconditioned by the framework of the text. The concept of the hermeneutic circle was for the first time introduced into the systematical hermeneutics theory by the German philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher. Though many researchers (K.-O. Apel, H.G. Gadamer, J. Grondin) assume that the notion of hermeneutic circle was elaborated in the earlier historical period, namely in the Middle Ages philosophical treatises. Friedrich Schleiermacher defined the hermeneutic circle as an integral part of Kunstlehre, the art of understanding, an interpretative process consisting of two phases: grammatical comprehension and psychological empathy.

Consequently, to understand the particular text, an interpretator should be acknowledged not only with its language, but also with the context of its origin. In XX century Martin Heidegger radically revised the notion of hermeneutic circle in the framework of his original phenomenological hermeneutics. According to his position, hermeneutic circle is a universal model of all understanding processes and bears the ontological significance along with technological application. Heidegger stated that the hermeneutic circle corresponds to the structure of a human experience and enables anthropological judgments about the facts, based on the a priori structures Vor-Urteile. Therefore, it defines the only possible way of human existence as an interpretation. The modern understanding of the concept of hermeneutic circle was substantially influenced by the theoretical works of H.-G. Gadamer and P. Ricoeur. These researchers enhanced the notion of hermeneutic circle by attributing to it the function of imaginative creativity, the redefining of existence in new language terms. According to them, the interpretative activity, guided by the principle of the hermeneutic circle, is a cognitive tool for experiencing the reality and the realization of socially responsible action.