Abstract

Relevance. Hermeneutics in the modern sense arose in the 20th century, and since then an active period of its development has passed. The hermeneutics methods are very important for the development of human knowledge, therefore, the consideration of these methods and their application in practice is a current problem in the modern world.

Purpose. The purpose of this article is to analyse the philosophical ideas of H.-G. Gadamer and E. Hirsch and defining their views on the problem of intention and truth.

Methodology. In this article, a number of methods of the theoretical block were used: information analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalisation and concretisation.

Results. As a result of the philosophical ideas analysis of the representatives of hermeneutics, an analysis and comparison of their ideas were made. The most important aspects of the comparison were views on history, the language role in text understanding, and the meaning of the author’s intention. Thus, in the course of the analysis of these key aspects, the points of view of philosophers regarding the problem of intention and truth were considered. The views of H.-G. Gadamer and E. Hirsch with the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle were compared, during which it was possible to expand the knowledge horizon of modern hermeneutics’ ideas. The most important conclusion that was made as a result of the study was that it is impossible to say which of the hermeneutics methods is better, because the authors thought in different categories and each of them is right in their own way.

Conclusions. This study can be used in further scientific works, because the ideas and methods of modern hermeneutics founders were deeply considered. Also in this article, a number of hypotheses were suggested, which can be studied in more detail in the future.

Keywords: author’s intention; hermeneutics; philosophical basis; historicity of understanding; “Fusion of horizons”

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