Hermeneutiek en waarheid : 'n kritiese ondersoek na die sin van die Wirkungsgeschichte in die filosofiese hermeneutiek van Hans-Georg Gadamer

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Gadamer's hermeneutical philosophy is an enlightenment of consciousness thatintends to correct a false consciousness concerning the power of reason and methods.His concept of the Wirkungsgeschichte presents his hermeneutical philosophy in anutshell and demonstrates that understanding is more being (Sein) than consciousness(Bewuïstseins.The Wirkungsgeschichte is constituted by three perspectives on the understanding ofmeaning from three different regions that escape the controlling procedures of method.The first is the experience of art where the concept of play functions as model; thesecond is the experience of tradition where the concept of dialogue functions asmodel; the third is the experience of speaking where the concept of translationfunctions as model. These three perspectives on understanding of meaning togetherconstitute the concept of the Wirkungsgeschichte and their relation is like threeconcentric circles with the art perspective as the inner circle. The Wirkungsgeschichtetranscends the subject-object dichotomy and demonstrates the understanding ofmeaning as a single event. It is here where Gadamer's concepts of hermeneutics andtruth crystallize.Gadamer's concept of truth is not truth as mirror in the way in which it functions inscience as the correspondence of correct judgment and reality. The kind of truth he isconcerned with, is truth as claim awareness (Angesprochenheity or truth as rock thatcarries and orientates us. One reaches truth as mirror only approximately and only aftermethodical procedures; while truth as rock is something that carries us, it is the claimawareness that constantly accompanies us and sweeps us along since we participate init all the time.Hermeneutics that reflects on understanding is, according to Gadamer, part ofPractical Philosophy because understanding, like Aristotle's concept of phronesis, isorientated on the general that must become concrete in the particular. Understandingis, like phronesis, not theoretical, but practical; the conclusion of understanding is alsonot a theoretical judgment, but a decision on orientation and action as part of theongoing dialogue that we are. Phronesis as the concretization of theWirkungsgeschichte functions also fruitfully in Gadamer's response to criticism fromthe perspectives of text interpretation, theory of science and critique of ideology.The contribution of this dissertation, is to place Gadamer's claim to universality inperspective and typify his one-sidedness as a prophetic appeal. Gadamer does notprovide a new method, nor rejects methodical procedures; he simply demonstrateswhat happens before and while we approach reality methodically. His hermeneuticalphilosophy is an enlightenment of consciousness which he typifies as part of the ThirdEnlightenment. As Third Enlightenment his Wirkungsgeschichtliche BewuDtsein helpsto ask critical questions to science, and especially to technocracy. In this wayGadamer's hermeneutics becomes Practical Philosophy and the Wirkungsgeschichte isconcretized in phronesis as the prudent and sensible concern with life in its striving todeepen humaneness.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University