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Article: The hermeneutic center.
- Article from:
- Journal of Ecumenical Studies
- Article date:
- March 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Journal of Ecumenical Studies. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Having taught graduate courses in both Western and Eastern hermeneutics for a couple of years, it struck me that (contemporary) Western hermeneutics seems to focus (exclusively) on the "hermeneutic circle," while (traditional) Eastern hermeneutics (mainly) emphasizes the "center."
Since Heidegger, the figure of the "hermeneutic circle" has found wide acceptance among students of philosophy and religion who consider hermeneutics the way to finding humanly meaningful truth. Hans Georg Gadamer, especially, through his extensive arguments for the indispensability of "Vorurteil" (pre-judgment, culturally and historically conditioned premise), has convinced many of the ...