The History of the Humanities
and
Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics
• The Old Testament being interpreted as a
prophecy of the New Testamen
• Origen’s (185-253) three levels:
– a literal meaning
– a moral meaning
– allegorical (anagogic, i.e. mystical, spiritual)
meaning
Scholasticism
• Continuing the Church Fathers
hermeneutics
• The four levels:
– literal
– allegorical
– moral
– anagogical/spiritual
Renaissance
• The rediscovery of the classics
• The problem of temporal distance
• The need for interpretation
Leonardo Bruni’s suggestion (ca
1420)
• Translating Aristotle’s Ethics according to
the historical context not with the letter
• The beginning of the use of hermeneutics
as an epistemological method
• The introduction of the hermeneutical
circle: understanding the whole in terms of
the parts and the other way round (16th c).
Romanticism
• J.G. Herder (1744-1803) – identifying
language with humanity—urging a
sympathetic approach to ancient myths.
• ”Any book from an ancient time or a
foreign country must be explained by
going back to that time and country. It is
absurd to expect that a text be intelligible
to all people in all countries at all times.”
Ninteenth Century
• Herder aimed at a self-identification with
the context of the work.
• F. Schleiermacher (1768-1834): “to
understand the text at first as well as and
then even better than its author.”
• The universality of hermeneutics:
understanding the human spirit/behavior.
Wilhelm Dilthey
• Emphasis on the difference between the human
and the natural sciences:
– Different objects of study
– Different modes of knowledge
Human sciences using categories such as
meaning, intention, value; no distinction
between subject and object; the method of
interpretation requires ”experience” and
”identification”
The Neo-Kantians
• Disciplines:
• - nomothetic (nomos: law): understanding a
particular phenomenon in terms of general laws
• - ideographic (idios: separate): understanding a
particular phenomenon on its own terms, the
importance of context
• The difference is purely methodological
• Studying phenomena in relation to a system of
values
The Ontological Turn
• Heidegger and the phenomenological
impact: hermeneutics acquires a
constitutive role; prejudices, assumptions
constituting the subject enable knowledge
of phenomena.
• Hermeneutics acquires an ontological
value that transcends the distinction
between human and natural sciences
Hans-Georg Gadamer (19002002)
• Gadamer stresses practical interpretation (in
opposition to historicists):
• - the encounter between the ”horizon” of the
intepreter and that of the text; an existential
encounter between two perspectives/”horizons
of expectation”—>”fusion of horizons”
• Our pre-judgments make knowledge possible;
hence, the importance of tradition
Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005)
• ”Critical hermeneutics” distinguishing between
true and false intepretations (return to an
epistemological outlook)
• ”The hermeneutics of suspicion” (Marx,
Nietzsche, Freud)
• (Author) – Text - Reader
• Understanding and explanation are
complementary
• The principle of charity, rational
assumptions (Davidson)
• Thick description/context (Geertz)
• Quentin Skinner’s method: illocutionary
statements and language games
Early premises
• Humanus, humanior
• Paidea – the trivium (grammar, rhetoric,
logic)
From Humanism to the Humanities
• Reaction against Scholasticism; rediscovering
antiquity; emerging in opposition to theology.
• Humanism presupposed emancipation from
scholastic reason; true logic meant ancient logic
not the ”sophisticated semantics” of
scholasticism.
• Renewed interest in the Greek language and
texts; the development of translation and editing
skills.
Marsilio Ficino
• Comparing his time with the ”Golden Age”
that ”has brought back to light the Liberal
Arts which had almost been extinct:
Grammar, Poetry, Rhetoric, Painting,
Architecture, Music and the ancient arts of
Singing to the Orphic Lyre.” (Platonic
Theology, 1482)
Valla and Erasmus
• ”Donatio Constantini” (Constantine’s Donation); Valla’s
disclosure by means of source criticism and philological
skills (mid-15th c.)
• Erasmus’ translations and text editing; his contribution to
the replacement of logic and dialectic by rhetoric and
grammar (early 16th c.)
• By the 1550s humanism (as a movement) became ”the
humanities” (as a scholarly practice); but, also, the
emphasis on the moral importance of the humanities
An Intellectual Fashion
• Education in the humanities became
fashionable:
• - training fluency (speaking at short notice on
any subject)
• - teaching (intellectual) docility, trusting the
authorities
• The Ciceronian model (the orator) could be
problematic since it was based on another
language and culture than one’s own.
Losing ground
• Francis Bacon’s criticim of Plato and
Aristotle as well as of the humanists along
with the Renaissance scholars; the gist of
the criticism focused on the metaphysical
treatment of natural philosophy; in the
process, the humanities are regarded less
and less as leading to moral edification,
becoming increasingly disciplines to be
studied.
Further shifts
•
Philology still applied to the study of the Bible, but not within a theological
framework (in Reformation theology, philology was at first an auxiliary
discipline to the study of the Bible);
•
Theology no longer seen as expressing truths in need of clarification
through philology
•
The first chairs of history (Marburg, Vienna; 16th-17thc.) At this stage the
university historians were mainly textual exegetes.
•
Knowledge of state systems was provided by the professors of rhetoric who
extended their analysis to contemporary culture and institutions
•
By 18th c. the professors of history were freeing themselves from the
classical framework: universal history meant (increasingly) the causal
analysis of the rise and decline of empires
Decisive turning point
• Humboldt’s outlook on knowledge and research
• The impact of Sanskrit on philology
• Philology replacing the rhetorical tradition of ”belles
lettres” (first in Germany, then from the beginning of the
20the c in the rest of Europe)
•
Herder’s philosophy stimulating research on folklore
• Philology as an exact science (Renan’s claim; Böckh’s
criticism of the rest of the human sciences: lacking
stringency)
Leopold (von) Ranke and historical
research
• ”Ad fontes”, back to the sources (once
more, see the Renaissance appeal)
• Presenting history ”as it really was”
• Stressing the importance of archive
research—primary sources
Literary history
Increasing autonomy: studying literature as
an expression of the national spirit
(Herder)
Romance studies/languages (Germany,
mid-19th c)—no need to speak French,
studying the material as a manifestation of
the historical ”spirit”
Institutionalization
• The increasing institutionalization of the
humanities
• Degree in history, 1873 (England); at Cambridge
history incorporated into the Moral Sciences
Tripos (modern history, law, jurisprudence,
political economy and moral philosophy), 18501867
• Literary studies being established at the turn of
the century
Gadamer under fire
• Criterion of validation (Hirsch, et al)
• The principle of charity, rational assumptions
(Davidson)
• Thick description (Geertz)
• Quentin Skinner’s method (based on Austin and
Wittgenstein)
Science and/or Scholarship
• Postmodernism: questioning
epistemological assumptions
• Deconstruction: back to the text; the
centre, the margin and the fragment
• Inter/transdisciplinarity