Abstract

The author singles out the functions of understanding and interpretation in terms of their object – nature, culture or the life world of man. The critical arguments are proposed against the strict separation of understanding and interpreting by A. L. Nikiforov. The author provides examples of paradoxes and other difficulties arising from their juxtaposition. He also formulates objections against the limited interpretation of linguistic universals as conceptual constructs. He proposes a hypothesis on the genesis of some empirical universals in science (chemical element by R. Boyle). Finally, he suggests the idea of a complex structure of language universals to be discovered by philosophical analysis.