The Objectivity Of Understanding

As is shown in the history of hermeneutics, the problem of understanding is its core problem and the question of understanding and its objectivity is of utmost importance in the discipline. This age is a pluralistic one and it is embodied in hermeneutics as open reading and pluralistic understanding of texts. This thesis starts with some typical notions of reading and understanding in modern hermeneutics, and then points out that open reading and pluralistic understanding does not mean arbitrary interpretation. It goes on to state that reading comprehension is the dialectic of creativity and constraint, the former originating from the indeterminate factors in the same process and the latter from the determinate factors in reading process. In the second chapter the paper analyzes the constraint of the state of pre-understanding and its universality over understanding from the angle of the reader. The third chapter discusses respectively the constraint of the definite factors in understanding from the angles of the text structure, the text's existing mode, the author's intention projected in the text, and the construction of its meaning. The last chapter draws a conclusion from the former parts and advances the position that understanding is objective in an important sense and it is precisely the objectivity of understanding that constitutes the basic value of the humanities.