Thursday 2 August 2012

Holism without Skepticism… Circularity

BOHMAN, J.F. (1991) Holism without Skepticism: Contexualism and the Limits of Interpretation. In: D.R. HILEY, J.F. BOHMAN, and R. SHUSTERMAN (Eds.) The Interpretive Turn. Cornell University Press. pp129-154



“the background thesis makes all actions, theories, and expressions context dependent. Taken together, circularity and reference to a background exclude the possibility of reducing interpretations to semantic explication or to some other procedure for fixing determinate meanings without reference to holistic constraints. These two premises [1&2] alone are sufficient to warrant scepticism about interpretation. It is commonplace in hermeneutics to argue that circularity need not be vicious.” (p137)

Annotation:
The fact that interpretation is circular, perspectival and exists within a socio-cultural context (meaning the interpreter’s actions and expressions are context dependent) does not mean that the circularity itself be vicious. Just because a determinate meaning cannot be achieved, due to such an existential problem of the individual’s understanding of being-in-the-world, doesn’t mean that understanding cannot be reached within using a hermeneutic circle. On the contrary. 

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