Die Vielfalt des Interpretierens

Abstract

Abstract Many discussions in the philosophy of the humanities and of the social sciences take it for granted that the term „interpretation“ unambiguously refers to only one well-defined activity. In this paper, I want to discredit this assumption. First, I distinguish seventeen different kinds of activity regarding linguistic utterances which are commonly considered activities of interpretation. Then I specify diverse methodological requirements connected with each of the kinds of interpretation distinguished. Finally, I argue that attempts to give an unitary account of interpretation-such as ‚assigning meaning to something’-fail to do justice to the multifariousness of the activities commonly called ‚interpretation’.