L’arte dell’interpretazione. Schleiermacher e la “svolta trascendentale” dell’ermeneutica

This article investigates hermeneutics’ “transcendental turn”, taking place with Schleiermacher’s criticism of the narrow scope of application of “sectorial” hermeneutic theories of his time. In order to pursue a hermeneutics as general discipline of interpretation and comprehension, Schleiermacher analyses its transcendental conditions of possibility, distinguishing a universal (“grammatical”) and an individual (“technical”) moment. Their interaction implies the ubiquity of the “hermeneutic circle” between parts and whole, which becomes the transcendental structure of the relationship between individuality and universality, both irreducible to each other. After touching upon the Platonic and Kantian roots of Schleiermacher’s “organic” conception of discourse and interpretive acts, the article concludes with some broader observations on his comprehensive view of hermeneutics, its transcendental turn, its consequences, and its implicit aesthetic dimension.