SUBJECTIVITY AND INTERPRETATION IN SCHLEIERMACHER’S HERMENEUTICS

Abstract

Schleiermacher’s project of the universalization of hermeneutics has been seen asthe very beginning of its modern history. By dividing the process of interpretation into two separate,but mutually dependent aspects: grammatical (objective) and technical, or psychological(subjective), Schleiermacher conceived the interpretation as a structurally dualistic, but fundamentallyinfinite process of moving toward the totality of sense. Different readings of Schleiermacherattribute to him either primacy of the linguistic or primacy of the intentional-psychological.The purpose of this work is to put Schleiermacher’s hermeneutics in a dualistic light, wherebywe can speak only about a mutual cooperation between two equally important aspects of theinterpretation. In such context the problem of subject is defined by its dualistic nature. Movingfrom one aspect of the interpretation to another, the place of subject reveals itself as essentiallyproblematic. Subjectivity is not considered in the terms of negation and self-determination, so inSchleiermacher there is a subject which constantly finds itself under the power of the objectivestructures (language, literal-artistic genres, tradition etc.). Therefore, the intention of this papersis to demonstrate that Schleiermacher’s hermeneutics, opposed to all critics of its romantic subjectivism,is not enough subjective. Subject is possible only as a borderline category.