Structualization Of Experience:Linguisticality In Gadamer’s Hermeneutics

Language is the central topic in20th century philosophy. Analytic philosophy emphasizes the logical and semantic analysis of language, and considers it as the fundamental task of philosophy. Modern linguistics and structuralist linguistics represented by Saussure, focus on the structure of language itself. Phenomenologist school represented by Husserl considers language as an external form of thoughts. Different philosophical schools intend to uncover the nature of language from different perspectives, displaying the logical, formalized and symbolic feature of language studies. However, they do not touch enough upon the ontological nature of language that concerns about the human experience. In philosophical hermeneutics, Gadamer adopts another way of treating language. He starts from human experience and focuses on the nature of language. The thesis aims to demonstrate the nature of language from its function in the process of the structuralization of experience from the perspective of Gadamer’s hermeneutics. It is mainly designed to demonstrate from four aspects:Gadamer’s basic conception of language, linguisticality as a process of solidification, organizationand diversification of experience. In Chapter1, the thesis intends to define the basic conception of Gadamer’s language, which refers to linguisticality. As the ontological horizon of human understanding, language solves the problem of subject-object dichotomy through its organization of human experience and involvement in world-constitution. In Chapter2, the thesis mainly demonstrates linguisticality as a process of solidification of experience. As an event of concept formation, language always exerts its function as "world disclosure". Experience is solidified in the form of concepts and as a consequence, comes into being through the process of conceptualization. In Chapter3, the thesis mainly demonstrates linguisticality as a process of organization of experience. Through the mediation of this intrinsic structure, experience as the concretion of historical effected consciousness, is factualized through the process of dialogue of question and answer. In Chapter4, the thesis mainly demonstrates linguisticality as a process of diversification of experience. With its various speculative features, language as both "world-disclosure" and "conversation" is strengthened and idealized. This aspect is especially embodied in literature. Experience is diversified and refined through our conversations with literary tradition, thus we perceive world in a more speculative dimension when interpreting literary texts. At last, the thesis concludes that, with its nature of "world-disclosure", intrinsic dialogical structure and speculative verbal forms, language conceptualizes, factualized and subtilized experience. Therefore experience forms and expresses itself through solidification, organization and diversification, thus showing that in Gadamer’s hermeneutics, language refers to linguisticality, which covers the ontological horizon of being-in-the-world.