Hermeneutics is traditionally called the theory and practice of the interpretation of texts, which has been developing in historical and philological science since the 18th century (G. Meyer, H. Wolf, etc.). Then it began to acquire a more universal character. Friedrich Schleiermacher developed it as a general theory of interpretation, and Wilhelm Dilthey as the foundation for knowledge of the humanities. However, if Schleiermacher insisted on traditional, grammatical-linguistic methods of interpretation, for Dilthey the hermeneutical method is, first of all, the art of understanding.
In the twentieth century, hermeneutics turned from a method of interpreting texts into philosophy, mainly thanks to Husserl's phenomenology and the work of Martin Heidegger. If Husserl considers the primary reality in cognition not “spirit” or “matter”, but “life world”, then Heidegger, using the teachings of Husserl, began to argue that for history and culture such a life world is, by and large, language. In his later works, Heidegger writes that language forms the destiny of being, that we do not speak the language, but rather, he speaks with our help. Continuing the Dilthey tradition, Heidegger defined what philosophical hermeneutics is. This is the hermeneutics of the language, since it contains something with which understanding is possible as such, which, in turn, leads to a "breakthrough to true being, life and thinking."
All this determined the further development of such a phenomenon as hermeneutics. The philosophy into which it was transformed posed the question of how the process of understanding the world is possible, and what place “discovery of the truth of being” occupies in this process. This was brilliantly done by its lead representative, Hans-Georg Gadamer. Interpreting the history and being of man, hermeneutics began to claim the place of a philosophy that explains the meaning of life, art and history, embracing the experience of an individual person, society, tradition, and breaking with it. If for P. Ricoeur the hermeneutic dialectic of explanation and understanding is the philosophical art of interpreting the world around us, for J. Habermas - the method of transforming society, then for Gadamer - the most universal philosophy of our time.
Gadamer's most famous work - “Truth and Method” - in his title as if hides the fundamental foundations of what hermeneutics is. The philosophy of understanding set forth in this work proves a significant difference in interpretation between the natural and mathematical sciences on the one hand, and the social and humanitarian sciences on the other. The theoretical concepts of the natural and mathematical sciences are based on a formal methodology based on induction and deduction, hypotheses and verification, and the study of repeating patterns. The humanities, on the other hand, are striving for the search for truth, and not focused on methodology. And the truth is not a theory, it is the truth of life - one where living people act.
Using Heidegger's terminology, Gadamer gives an answer to the question of what the humanities are and what is their specificity. The concept of tradition plays a huge role in him. This is one of the forms of authority for him, because no one can know anything without the help of his predecessors. But tradition cannot exist without language. She transmitted it through. In addition, with the help of language they formulate the experience of a person, express and give it a form. Cognition is also due to the presence of language. In Gadamer's exposition, hermeneutics - the philosophy of understanding - proves that it is an integral property of language. But its ambiguity leads to the fact that the texts must be interpreted hermeneutically in order to understand all their meanings.
In Gadamer's philosophy, there is another, even more fundamental category than language - this is a game. It lies at the heart of the deepest way of human existence and makes the process of cognition possible. In addition, language and understanding as such are also based on the game. After all, she, according to Gadamer, is not derived from the person, and does not contain interest in herself - she is independent and self-sufficient, as a “thing in herself”. The game is a real subject - it draws players into itself, getting embodied in them. No wonder the games are called "exciting" - they really capture the participants.
Such a gameplay is the aesthetic contemplation of a work of art, reading a book, understanding history. “Aesthetic experience, catharsis, historical research, ” emphasizes Gadamer, “promise a special pleasure devoid of pragmatic interest.”
We can say that hermeneutics, philosophy and theory of knowledge in the humanities, suggests that understanding, approaching the game, allows you to get closer to the truth. The experience of hermeneutics, like the experience of art and religion, is based in many cases on intellectual contemplation, on intuition. The hermeneutic art of understanding, guided by intuition, allows one to comprehend the meaning of the text as such. Moreover, not only what the author wanted to say, but also the context in which the text was created and what it carries, is taken into account. And this is possible thanks to categories such as common sense, personal experience, the discovery of internal logic through a kind of reincarnation, "dialogue" with the text. Such knowledge “from within” allows us to comprehend both the phenomenon of society and culture, and the problems of human being.
