诠释学在何种意义上是实践哲学?——从“转向说”和“走向说”的论争谈起

In What Sense Can Hermeneutics Be a Practical Philosophy?:Debate between“Statement of Turning”and“Statement of Going”

德国诠释学家伽达默尔曾经有“作为实践哲学的诠释学”的说法。围绕这一说法,国内诠释学界就伽达默尔哲学诠释学的“实践哲学转向”问题以及“诠释学在何种意义上是实践哲学”诸问题展开了长达十余年的论争。深入思考可以发现,伽达默尔的哲学诠释学实现了整个西方诠释学的“实践哲学转向”,这一转向以《真理与方法》的初稿写作(1955—1956)、公开讲演(1957)和正式出版(1960)为不同的时间节点,而其晚期思想不过是这一转向的进一步延续。伽达默尔的哲学诠释学之所以成为实践哲学,不是因为它着力探究“伦理学”或“政治学”领域中的实践问题,而是因为它将“理解”本身作为一种特殊的“实践”予以哲学思考。伽达默尔是要在诠释学中恢复实践哲学传统,而不是要把诠释学改造为伦理学。在当代中国经典诠释学的理论建构中,必须注重“实践哲学导向”,尤其是亟待展开“对普遍东西的具体化”这一伟大主题的方法论思考。

German hermeneutic philosopher Gadamer had a famous statement of“hermeneutics as practical philosophy”.Around this statement,China’s hermeneutic academia has been debating for more than a decade on“practical philosophical turning”in Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics and such issues as“In what sense is Hermeneutics a practical philosophy?”Through a thorough examination,we can find out that Gadamer had completed“the turn of practical philosophy”in the whole Western hermeneutics with the first draft(in 1955-1956),related public lectures(in 1957)and the publication(in 1960)of Truth and Method as three landmarks.His later-years’philosophy was only a further continuation of this turn.Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics became a practical philosophy not because it focuses on practical issues in the field of“ethics”or“political science”,but because it philosophically considers“understanding”itself as a particular“practice”.Gadamer was to restore the practical philosophical tradition in hermeneutics,rather than to transform hermeneutics into ethics.In the theoretical construction of contemporary Chinese classic hermeneutics,we must pay attention to“the practical philosophy orientation”,especially the methodology concerning the great theme of“the concretization of the universal”.