Document Type : Research Paper
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Abstract
Hermeneutics as the science of understanding and interpretation of scriptures has been practiced by scholars and intellectuals since the time of Socrates and Plato,and even earlier,as is sometimes argued.In Greek writings,there exist many books and treatises in the field written by a number of thinkers including Plato and Aristotle.In the Biblical context, hermeneutics was employed in the interpretation of the Testaments by Christian theologians from Augustine of Hippo(the 5thcentury) to Schleiermacher (the 18th century). Much effort was devoted to the field by Schleiermacher, followed by further great steps afterwards, and by the time of Wilhelm Dilthey, hermeneutics was employed in understanding intentions of the speaker. However, as a result of the French Revolution and with the advent of Dechristianisation, many great linguists and philosophers including Claude Lévi-Strauss, Michel Foucault, Umberto Eco, and more recently Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer used hermeneutics for understanding the text itself, suggesting that hermeneutics and the interpretive methodology help the reader to understand the text regardless of the speaker/author. This paper seeks to explore various periods of the history of hermeneutics from early times up to the late 20th century.Moreover, it examines the changes in scholars’ viewpoints regarding arbitrariness of the language as was discussed in semiology, as well as the study of language as a phenomenon, which led to language being regarded as a branch of phenomenology.Finally,it deals with longitudinal and latitudinal(metatextual and intertextual) interpretations upon which a special interpretation of the Qur’an is then suggested, arguing that interpretation of the verses of the Qur’an has no congruity with Macherian or Heideggerian hermeneutic interpretations and is of a totally different kind.
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