Journal: Global Journal of Classical Theology
Volume: GJCT 01:1 (Sep 1998)
Article: Hermeneutics and Epistemology: Hirsch’s Author Centered Meaning, Radical Historicism and Gadamer’s Truth and Method
Author: Dwight Poggemiller

Hermeneutics and Epistemology:
Hirsch’s Author Centered Meaning, Radical Historicism
and Gadamer’s Truth and Method

Dwight Poggemiller

Hermeneutics is a crucial part of epistemology which has traditionally dealt with the theory of interpretation.1 The importance and interrelation of epistemology and hermeneutics cannot be underestimated. The philosophical presuppositions which lie behind hermeneutics are innumerable.2 In recent times, hermeneutics has come to embrace every type of knowledge and human experience. This expansion, according to Charles Larmore, “stems from the realization that epistemologically the interpretation of texts does not differ from other forms of knowledge. . .”3 Here, he reflects the more recent understanding of hermeneutics. This field of study is no longer regarded as looking at theory in interpretation. It has come to be seen as interpretation itself. While I do not particularily agree with this definition, his main point concerning hermeneutics and its relationship to epistemology is not to be ignored. A study of hermeneutics cannot be conducted without coming into contact with epistemic theories of meaning, justification, and knowledge.

In the realm of Biblical interpretation, as Gordon Fee and John Feinberg have argued, the study of hermeneutics is of crucial importance for the doctrine of inerrancy.4 As a result, it cannot be ignored by the Biblical scholar in his attempts to communicate God’s Word. Unfortunately, until recently, relatively little work has been done on the part of Biblical scholars in this area. Slightly over twenty years ago, one writer came to the sad conclusion “that hermeneutics remains ‘an absurdly neglected study in English theology at all levels.’5 An orientation to epistemology for the serious student of the Bible is desirable, if not imperative.

Because of the vastness of both the subject and its scholarship, only a somewhat broad overview of hermeneutics and its relation to epistemology is possible here. In the process of showing this interrelation, I will discuss the traditional theory of meaning expounded by E. D. Hirsch centering the meaning of a text with its author’s intent. The full impact of this theory can best be grasped in its response to the objections of radical historicism, and its comparison with a competing theory of meaning offered by Hans-Georg Gadamer. Through this interaction of competing theories, I will show that a very close affinity exists between a person’s approach to a text and his epistemological orientation.