Abstract

Originally hermeneutics were considered as a special method intending to grasp the sense of texts . Initially this aim was grounded on the differentiation between subject and object: the knowledge gaining subject had the intention to get an adequate idea of the sense intended by the author, and it was this sense, which was considered as the object of knowledge in humanities. But in was in the very application of this method that it turned out more and more, that the differentiation between subject and object got highly problematic; that human fulfilment of life itself embodies a hermeneutic process, in which pre-understanding, being conditioned by tradition and history and unconscious influence of lots of factors play a decisive role. This is the case in the production of what has to be understood as well as in the understanding revelation of the product. Hence the sense of a work which has to be understood transcends the author’s intention. The basic implication of this insight is that hermeneutic philosophers can claim to understand a product better than the author ever could. In fact the sense of a product of human spirit is inexhaustible, and it has to be the aim of humanities to find out those aspects, which can be applied in a fruitful way for the presence