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Metaphorand theMain Problemof Hermeneutics
PaulRicoeur
IN THIS
SASSUME PAPER that the main problemof hermeneutics is
that of interpretation.Not interpretation in any undetermined
senseof the word,but interpretation withtwo qualifications: one
concerningitsscope or fieldof application,the otheritsepistemological
specificity.As concerns the firstpoint, I should say that there are
problemsof interpretation because there are texts,writtentexts,the
autonomy of which (as regardseithertheintentionof the author,or the
situation of the work,or the destinationto privilegedreaders) creates
specificproblems;theseproblemsare usuallysolvedin spokenlanguage
by the kind of exchangeor intercoursewhich we call dialogue or con-
versation. With writtentexts,the discoursemust speak by itself. Let
us say, therefore, that thereare problemsof interpretation because the
relationwriting-reading is not a particularcase of the relationspeaking-
hearingin the dialogical situation. Such is the mostgeneralfeatureof
interpretation as concernsits scope or applicationfield.
Secondly, conceptof interpretation
the occurs,at the epistemological
level, as an alternative concept opposed to that of explanation (or
explication); taken together,theyboth forma significantcontrasting
pair, which has given riseto many philosophicaldisputesin Germany
since the time of Schleiermacherand Dilthey; accordingto that tradi-
tion,interpretation has specificsubjectiveimplications,such as the in-
volvementof the reader in the processof understandingand the re-
ciprocitybetween text-interpretation and self-interpretation. This re-
is
ciprocity usually known as the "hermeneutical circle" and has been
opposed, mainlyby logical positivists, but also foropposite reasonsby
Romantic thinkers,to the kind of objectivityand to the lack of self-
involvementwhich is supposed to characterizea scientificexplanation
of things. I shall say laterto what extentwe may be led to amend and
even to rebuildon a new basis the oppositionbetween interpretation
and explanation.
Anyhow,thisschematicdescriptionof the concept of interpretation
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96 NEW LITERARY HISTORY
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METAPHOR AND THE MAIN PROBLEM OF HERMENEUTICS 97
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98 NEW LITERARY HISTORY
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METAPHOR AND THE MAIN PROBLEM OF HERMENEUTICS 99
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100 NEW LITERARY HISTORY
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METAPHOR AND THE MAIN PROBLEM OF HERMENEUTICS IOI
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102 NEW LITERARY HISTORY
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METAPHOR AND THE MAIN PROBLEM OF HERMENEUTICS 103
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104 NEW LITERARY HISTORY
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METAPHOR AND THE MAIN PROBLEM OF HERMENEUTICS 105
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o106 NEW LITERARY HISTORY
fromthe limiiits
of ostensivereference.For us, the worldis the ensemble
of referencesopened up by texts. Thus we speak about the "world"of
Greece,not to designateanyumIorewhatwerethesituationsforthosewho
lived then,but to designatethe nonsituational referenceswhichoutlive
the effaciilelnt
of the firstand whichhenceforth are offeredas possible
modesof being,of symbolicdimensionsof our being-in-the-world.4
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METAPHOR AND THE MAIN PROBLEM OF HERMENEUTICS
10o7
scandal the mere idea of a hermeneuticalcircle and considerit as an
outrageousviolationof all the canons of verifiability.
For my part, I do not want to deny that the hermeneuticalcircle
remainsan unavoidable structureof interpretation.No genuineinter-
pretation which does not end in some kind of appropriation-of
Aneignung,if by that termwe mean the processof makingone's own
(eigen) what was other,foreign(fremd). But my claim is that the
hermeneuticalcircle is not correctlyunderstoodwhen it is presented
( I ) as a circlebetweentwo subjectivities, that of the reader and that
of the author, and (2) as the projection of the subjectivityof the
readerin the readingitself.Let us correctthe firstassumptionin order
to correctthesecondone.
"That whichwe make our own, we appropriateforourselves,is not
a foreignexperienceor a distantintention,it is the horizonof a world
towardswhichthisrefers: the appropriationof the referenceno longer
finds any model in the fusion of consciousness,in 'empathy' or in
sympathy.The comingto language of the sense and the referenceof
a text is the coming to language of a world and not the recognition
of anotherperson."
The second correctionof the Romanticistconcept of interpretation
followsfromthe firstone. If appropriationis the counterpartof dis-
closure,then the role of subjectivityis not correctlydescribedas pro-
jection. I should rathersay that the readerunderstandshimselfbefore
the text,beforethe world of the work. To understandoneselfbefore,
in frontof, a world is the contraryof projectingoneselfand one's
beliefsand prejudices; it is to let the work and its world enlarge the
horizonof my own self-understanding.
Hermeneutics,therefore, does not submitinterpretation to the finite
of of a
capacities understanding givenreader; it does not put the mean-
ing of the text under the power of the subject who interprets."Far
fromsayingthat a subject alreadymastershis own way of being in the
world and projectsit as the a prioriof his reading . . .I say that
interpretation is the processby which the disclosureof new modes of
being-or, if you preferWittgensteinto Heidegger,of new formsof
life gives to the subject a new capacity of knowinghimself. If there
is somewherea projectand a projection,it is the referenceof the work
which is the projectof a world; the reader is consequentlyenlargedin
his capacity of self-projection by receivinga new mode of being from
thetextitself."
In thatway the hermeneuticalcircleis not denied,but it is displaced
froma subjectivisticto an ontologicallevel; the circle is between my
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108 NEW LITERARY HISTORY
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METAPHOR AND THE MAIN PROBLEM OF HERMENEUTICS I O9
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II0 NEW LITERARY HISTORY
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