A few remarks on naturalistic attempts to rationalise hermeneutics

Abstract

The aim of the text is to consider Gianni Vattimo's claim that hermeneutics needs to be more rational due to its criticised relativism and aestheticism. From this perspective, the author considers the projects proposed by Bartosz Brożek and Chrysostomos Mantzavinos, based on the assumption that the cognitive phenomena underlying the understanding of human behaviour and the resulting artefacts can be described using naturalistic methods. Finally, the question is considered whether these attempts, coming from outside the hermeneutic movement, offer hope for eliminating the flaws of hermeneutics mentioned by Vattimo, and what the prospects are for further research on this issue.

Keywords

• Hans-Georg Gadamer
• Gianni Vattimo
• hermeneutics
• rationalisation of hermeneutics
• philosophy of interpretation
• methodology of humanities