Transcending in historical consciousness

pp. 50-57

in: Alan Olson, Transcendence and hermeneutics, Berlin, Springer, 1979

Abstract

In Jaspers' historical work as in the formally philosophical, it is the principle of "transcending-thinking" as hic et nunc that compels the reader to interpretation and judgement. Jaspers states: "Genuine interpretation ... does not subsume but penetrates; it does not claim to know with finality but while always taking cognizance of what has just been apprehended, it proceeds by a method of questioning and answering. It thereby begins a process of assimilation, the conditions and limits of which it determines for itself ... False interpretation provides for the pleasurable illusion of a general survey by placing its object at a distance and viewing it ab extra as an exotic specimen; the true interpretation is a means to the possibility of self-involvement."¹