Hermeneutics introduces English-speaking readers to a field of
increasing importance in contemporary philosophy and
theology-hermeneutics, the theory of understanding, or interpretation.
Hermeneutics is concerned with the character of understanding,
especially as it is related to interpreting linguistic texts. It goes
beyond mere philological methodology, however, to questions of the
philosophy of language, the nature of historical understanding, and
ultimately the roots of interpretation in existential understanding.
Palmer principally treats the conception of hermeneutics enunciated by
Heidegger and developed into a “philosophical hermeneutics” by
Hans-Georg Gadamer. He provides a brief overview of the field of
hermeneutics by surveying some half-dozen alternate definitions of the
term and by examining in detail the contributions of Friedrich
Schleiermacher and Wilhelm Dilthey. In the “Manifesto” which concludes
the book, Palmer suggests the potential significance of hermeneutics
for literary interpretation.
When the context of interpretation is pressed to its limits,
hermeneutics becomes the philosophical analysis of what is involved in
every act of understanding. In this context, hermeneutics becomes
relevant not simply to the humanistic disciplines, in which linguistic
and historical understanding are crucial, but to scientific forms of
interpretation as well, for it asserts the principles involved in any
and every act of interpretation.