Abstract
Abstract
This chapter discusses Spinoza’s legacy in modern philosophy of interpretation, especially in the works of Johann Gottfried Herder, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Germaine de Staël. Departing from Spinoza’s sola scriptura principle—according to which interpretation of the Bible should have as its foundation the biblical text and not, for instance, some external philosophical standard—the chapter investigates to what degree hermeneutics can be extended to emancipatory political ends as we come to understand others. It devotes a section each to Herder, Schleiermacher, and Staël. The chapter also seeks to demonstrate that hermeneutics, as it develops in the aftermath of Spinoza, addresses the way we, as finite human beings, relate to others and ourselves.
Publisher
Oxford University PressOxford