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Abstract
Hermeneutical inquiry has explodedon the modern sceneas a methodology for the interpretation of all texts. Hermeneutics, or the art ofinterpretation, was originally used for the interpretation of scripture and other difficult texts, and dates back to the ancient Greek philosophers. In the last two centuries though, hermeneutics has grown to incorporate the interpretation of texts onto a universal level. There have been many theorists in the field, for example Martin Heidegger, Edmund Husserl, William Dithery, and Paul Ricoeur, but the most significant was Friedrich Schleiermacher who was responsible for bringing hermeneutical inquiry onto a general level. Schleiermacher’s hermeneutic consists of a dual aspect: grammatical interpretation and psychological interpretation. It is this second aspect which eventually becomes problematic for Schleiermacher’s successors, especially Hans-Georg Gadamer who criticizes Schleiermacher for his ‘authorial intent’ claim. Gadamer takes this claim and reworks it into a theory which allows for pre-understanding and subjectivity. In the following studythere will be a brief sketch of Husserl, followed by the theories of Schleiermacher and Gadamer, and Gadamer’s critique of Schleiermacher’s hermeneutic. Using this analysis it will become apparent that neither Schleiermacher nor Gadamer’s theory negates the other, and both methods are required in order to gain the highest understanding of a text.