Hermeneutics and the “new” transcendentalism

Abstract

This paper is about the relation between hermeneutics and transcendentalism. In particular, I will consider conceptual elements of two hermeneuts, Heidegger and Gadamer, as well as the notion of transcendental philosophy elaborated by Husserl. It is clear that the issue of transcendentalism goes back to what we know today by the phenomenological-hermeneutic tradition, in which the mentioned authors are inserted. The proposal here is precisely to trace the philosophical correspondences between the hermeneutics of the Heideggerian and Gadamerian philosophical facticity and the new model of transcendentalism that constitutes Husserlian phenomenology. I therefore consider Husserl's criticisms of Descartes and Kant, philosophers who are associated with modern transcendental philosophy and with whom Husserl was in theoretical conflict. Even though Husserl's controversial transcenden tal turn has been widely criticized, his transcendental phenomenology is founded as an epistemological orientation that will influence the theories of the interpretation of his aforementioned successors, insofar as it calls into question the constitution of “objectivities” from the perspective of meaning.