Epistemologías · 1960
Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics starts from a central idea: to understand is not simply to record data, but to interpret meanings within a historical, linguistic, cultural and relational context. From Dilthey, Heidegger and Gadamer, human understanding is conceived as a situated activity: we do not access meaning from absolute neutrality, but from a tradition, a prior horizon and a concrete position in the world. Ricoeur extends this tradition by articulating a hermeneutics of the symbol, of the text, of narration and of suspicion, particularly relevant for reading human suffering beyond its immediate appearance.
Key references
- Dilthey, W. (1883). Introduction to the Human Sciences.
- Heidegger, M. (1927). Being and Time.
- Gadamer, H.-G. (1960). Truth and Method.
- Ricoeur, P. (1965). Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation.
- Habermas, J. (1968). Knowledge and Human Interests.
- Freud, S. (1900). The Interpretation of Dreams.
- Spence, D. P. (1982). Narrative Truth and Historical Truth: Meaning and Interpretation in Psychoanalysis.
- Schafer, R. (1983). The Analytic Attitude.
- Lear, J. (1990). Love and Its Place in Nature: A Philosophical Interpretation of Freudian Psychoanalysis.
- Klein, G. S. (1976). Psychoanalytic Theory: An Exploration of Essentials.