Philosophy of Being and Knowledge

Hermeneutics (Philosophy of Understanding)

The Middle Ages and Modern Times

The methods of hermeneutics carried over into the Middle Ages. The theologians of this era asserted that sacred texts possess two layers of meaning: the external shell, comprising language, grammar, textual criticism, and the like, and the internal content, which includes moral and dogmatic doctrine. Behind every biblical statement lies a profound message, conveyed by God through the historical events in scripture to all humanity. Another field where hermeneutics flourished was law. The Western European legal system of the Middle Ages was grappling with the challenges of formation: Germanic tribes were accustomed to living by their customary law, but the creation of states required precise legislation. Roman law proved most suitable for this purpose, yet to apply it to the nascent feudal countries, it needed to be interpreted. Roman laws were written for the needs of the Roman Empire, and thus it became necessary to explain why this legislation should be binding upon the Germanic peoples and how the norms of Roman law could be adapted to the social relations of the feudal Middle Ages with its decentralization.

The Reformation marked an era of significant changes in hermeneutics. The primary principle of biblical hermeneutics before the Reformation was reading the text in the light of tradition. This meant that the correct interpretation of the Bible was based solely on the centuries-old tradition of the Church and the accumulated knowledge of biblical scholars who had studied the sacred Christian writings over the ages. However, the leader of the German Reformation, Martin Luther (1483-1546), claimed that Bible interpreters should abandon tradition and accumulated knowledge. In his view, the Bible is self-evident. This implies that the Bible is written in such a way that it explains itself to every reader. Tradition, he argued, only creates obstacles to its proper understanding. Luther's assertion demanded further clarification, which his followers endeavored to provide. Luther’s ally, Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), made a significant contribution to the development of Protestant hermeneutics during the early Reformation.

The Renaissance was a period of intense fascination with ancient culture in all its forms. Among the intellectuals of this era, particularly in Italy, there was a surge of interest in ancient literature. Texts unknown to the Middle Ages were actively copied, and with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century, they were reprinted and widely disseminated. Many works of ancient culture were translated into Latin or Italian. This rediscovered the world of ancient literature for Renaissance Europe, but this vast body of past literature arrived as uncharted material. Renaissance scholars not only read these works but also studied them. In doing so, they discovered many problematic aspects. Some works were attributed to pseudonymous authors who did not actually write them; others were wrongly dated for centuries, and some had other issues. Identifying these problems was only possible through a meticulous analysis of the texts. Thus, a new field of study, textual criticism (ars critica), emerged. This art allowed scholars to identify texts, establish their time of origin and authorship, pinpoint the regions where they were written, and thus understand them better.

The blossoming of hermeneutic studies during the Renaissance elevated the role of hermeneutics. The German scholar Johann Conrad Dannhauer (1603-1666) was the first to propose discussing hermeneutics not as a technical tool for specific fields of knowledge but as universal principles of understanding. Up until this point, hermeneutics had been highly specialized: biblical hermeneutics, legal hermeneutics, textual criticism, and so on, each confined to its respective domain, with no influence on others. Dannhauer was the first to ask whether it might be more appropriate to speak of universal hermeneutics, that is, hermeneutics as a science of the principles of interpretation and understanding, which would be equally effective in all areas of knowledge. Several thinkers contributed to hermeneutics in the Modern Age:

• Benedict Spinoza (1632-1677) expressed his thoughts on biblical hermeneutics. He called for interpreting the Bible based on reason. Every biblical statement, in his view, should be analyzed from the standpoint of reason and considered valid only when its rationality is proven. Spinoza advocated for discarding anything that did not fit into a rational explanation, such as descriptions of miracles. For Spinoza, reason is the highest criterion of truth, and anything that does not meet its standards is devoid of meaning.
• The German scholar Johann Martin Chladenius (1710-1759), analyzing the hermeneutic problem, demonstrated that each person understands a text from their own point of view. Thus, Chladenius was the first to point out that there is no objective interpretation, as every understanding arises from a personal perspective. Previously, scholars dealing with hermeneutic issues sought to find the objective content of a text, one that would be independent of the interpreter’s personal views and beliefs. The introduction of the concept of "point of view" into hermeneutics was a major breakthrough and laid the foundation for further philosophical hermeneutics in the 19th century.
• Georg Friedrich Meier (1718-1777) presented hermeneutics as a universal science of understanding and interpretation, whose principles apply across all fields of knowledge. He saw the epistemological task of humankind as understanding the world. Meier reiterated Leibniz's idea that our world is the best of all possible worlds, as God’s creation could not be otherwise. God is good and omnipotent: being good, he wished to create the best; and being omnipotent, he was able to do so. This means that the world is harmonious, and understanding its harmony is the task of knowledge.