The importance of interpretation for Chladenius and Gadamer

By: Leonor Taiano & José Sarzi | Posted: Jul 22, 2011

The content of this article is based on the ideas of two significant scholars: Gadamer and Chladenius. We have given more importance to the thinking of Chladenius because he devoted much of his studies to the interpretation of historical accounts. Furthermore, his hermeneutic circle based on the interaction among speaker/writer-interpreter-reader/listener seems to be, in my opinion, fundamental for those who are working on literary analysis.

Hermeneutics is the designation given to the movement in philosophy that is concerned with how meaning is made. Interpretation, is used to mean the procedure by which individuals make sense of their experience, it is also a process concentrated on the mental activity of the viewer. Interpretation restructures the meaning through a circular action, the hermeneutic circle, where understanding develops through the continuous movement between the whole and the parts of a work.

For Chladenius the hermeneutic circle depends on the viewpoint, which leaves the interpreter to construe what cannot immediately be seen from a limited historical vantage point. Chladenius considers that a good interpretation is correlated with the knowledge of specific concepts that permit the reader/listener to interpret correctly. If we lack of those concepts it is indispensable to learn them to accomplish our goal of understanding. For Gadamer, the hermeneutic circle is an interactive process through which a new understanding of a whole reality is developed by

means of exploring the aspects of existence, for this reason is a model of all understanding. He deems that the meaning cannot be understood in an arbitrary way without taking into account how the parts affect the whole.

If understanding consists on learning for Chladenius, for Gadamer, instead, understanding is dialectical, and takes place as an event within a tradition. He believes that the fact that human being is historically defined and placed is essential in the process of understanding. Knowledge is inherently dialectical and we humans are conversations, he locates meaning in the larger context of the community. Furthermore, he argues that it is essential to recognize the legitimate prejudices, explicitly those that make understanding plausible. Moreover, he gives central importance to the time; he ascertains a relationship of the present to the past. In addition, he also refers to the epistemological limitations of both text and reader as horizons, arguing that our respective points limit the perspective of the text and reader alike in time. A propos of interpretation, Gadamer considers that all interpretation is always guided by its own prejudice; a positive prejudice can facilitate understanding.

Bibliography:

Chladenius, Johann Martin, "On the concept of Interpretation", in The Hermeneutics Reader, New York, The Continuum International Publishing group Inc, 1985, 54-71.

Craig, Bartholomew, Reading Ecclesiastes: Old Testament exegesis and hermeneutical theory, Rome, Editrice Roma Istituto Biblico, 1998.

Fishburn, Katherine, Reading Buchi Emecheta: cross-cultural conversation, Connecticut, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995.

Gadamer, Hans-Georg, The Gadamer reader: a bouquet of the later

writings, Ed. Richard E. Palmer, Chicago, North Western University Press, 2007.

Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Truth and Method, London, Sheed and Ward