CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Lazurca, Vladimir |
|---|---|
| Title | Transcendental Hermeneutics. Grounding Interpretation in the Hermeneutical Circle |
| Summary | The argument of this dissertation is built through sustained and critical dialogue with several figures in the (Western) history of hermeneutical thought and pivots on a problem that defined the early development of hermeneutics: the problem of the criterion for interpretation. This problem poses a unique set of philosophical challenges and moves us in the direction of a distinguishing mark, not merely for the justification of some particular interpretation, but a mark that would testify to the legitimacy of hermeneutical inquiry itself. Although this dissertation pays tribute to the far-reaching, substantial, and severely neglected history of hermeneutics, and contributes to expanding our understanding of the hermeneutical beyond canonical figures and boundaries, tribute is not its main objective. Instead, the deeper profit of this amplified vista – which stems directly from my retrieval of the problem of the criterion – is the recovery of a systematic unity of approach to the hermeneutical stretching across the confines of historiographical division. It is thus the reconstruction of an integrated line of thought, rather than lines of historical influence, that is the chief purpose of this work. Specifically, this dissertation aims to provide (1) the reconstruction of a line of response to the problem of the criterion for interpretation – and the problem of grounding interpretation; (2) the general formulation of this line of argument as one that involves a transcendental modality, and (3) its defense. To these ends, Chapter 1 retrieves the problem of the criterion for interpretation, initially posed in the context of a strand of semantic skepticism endemic to the German Enlightenment called “exegetical skepticism”. Chapter 2 examines the doctrine of hermeneutical probability in the work of Christian Thomasius, distinguishes it from exegetical skepticism, and diagnoses its failure to reply to the skeptic. Chapter 3 provides an analysis of Christian August Crusius' reply to the problem of the criterion and associates it, if successful, to the idea of “transcendental grounding”. Next, Chapter 4 leverages the apparent similarity between the Crusian and Gadamerian positions into an opportunity to further define transcendental grounding as an approach to understanding in Gadamer. Chapter 5 then presses the Crusian line of argument further and reconstructs a Gadamerian reply to the problem of the criterion, defending it against the skeptic. Aims (1) and (3) thus attained, the final two chapters shift focus form the hermeneutical to the transcendental in pursuit of aim (2). Accordingly, Chapter 6 identifies an engagement with a version of the problem of the criterion in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, the Transcendental Deduction specifically. And, finally, Chapter 7 draws a comparison between the proof-structure of Kant's Transcendental Deduction and the transcendental line of reply to the problem of the criterion that will have been my focus. |
| Supervisor | Dougherty Matt |
| Department | Philosophy PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/lazurca_vladimir.pdf |
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