Abstract
If a single doctrine can be said to characterize hermeneutics, it is that of the circle of interpretation. At its broadest, the circle relates the interpreter to the text he wishes to understand.
The text, at work in determining the historical tradition in which the interpreter works, determines his interpretation in determining this tradition. His interpretation, however, contributes to this tradition and, hence, plays its part in determining the text that is presented through it.
Here, text and interpretation enter into a circle of mutual determination. In this article, I examine hermeneutics' account of the circular structure of the understanding.
I then raise the phenomenological question of the intuitive evidence for this structure.