Hermeneutics and the human sciences

• Autor(a) principal: Soares, Luiz Eduardo
• Data de Publicação: 1988
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Estudos Históricos (Rio de Janeiro)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/reh/article/view/1932

The author of this article seeks to situate the hermeneutic tradition and the outlook of Hans-George Gadamer in particular, in the light of certain strategic dilemmas in the human sciences which, in the author's opinion, involve a common question: the status assigned to uniqueness. Recognition of the importance and the persistence of this problem permits the distinction of three particularly significant positions, tributaries of the Enlightenment and of romanticism. Hermeneutics, as it is understood in the essay, represents the neo-romantic position, characterized by the attribution of pertinence to difference in its irreducible aspect. Yet, unlike what is known as the "philosophy of difference", it does not reject Hegelian inspiration in the appropriation of Heidegger's legacy. The author tries to demonstrate that the triangular framework resulting from the viewpoint chosen as the ordering focal point (the question of uniqueness) is productive - though, of course, not the only one possible - because it sheds light on decisive facets to contemporary debates. He points to the privileged role that the hermeneutic tradition could play in the progression of the controversy, which is of necessity defined as incomplete.