PHILOSOPHY OF UNDERSTANDING: HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE OF INTERPRETATION

Philosophy considers the problems of understanding in the mostly broad context, not restricting itself just to the study of cognitive processes associated with understanding as a phenomenon of consciousness. The philosophical view of the problem of understanding presupposes the substantiation of the relationship between knowledge and understanding as an interrelated process that reveals the very essence of the process of human cognition. On the other hand, along with the epistemological component of the process of cognition and the clarification of the conditions accompanying understanding, the consideration of a number of methodological issues related to the study of the specific material that is used to solve this problem becomes relevant. The ascent to understanding begins with the process of cognition, with the study of a specific subject, a specific area of knowledge, but also with the study of the text. Correct understanding of the text under study (fiction, scientific, philosophical) means to use in your research the methods and principles of interpretation that are developed within the framework of philosophical hermeneutics as a methodology of philosophical interpretation. The study of a text with a particular content assumes that the researcher is aimed at finding out the true meaning (often implicit, hidden) that this text conveys. It is this task — the search for truth — that unifies the efforts of scientists working in various fields of knowledge. Thus, the problem of understanding sets prospects for the development of philosophical hermeneutics, the methodological results of which can be required in the specific research activities of scientists. Each scientific discipline has its own subject, its own problems, as well as its own history. Turning to the history of the formation of philosophical hermeneutics, dating back to the era of antiquity, allows us to show how the methodology of interpretation has been formed. At the first stages of history, it was associated with the practice of interpreting the spoken word, where the task of “correct interpretation” gave value to each word and thereby formed the basis for the relationship between knowledge and understanding. The article will consider and analyze the historically earliest experience of understanding and interpretation, which creates the cultural and historical basis of philosophical hermeneutics.