The Broken Tradition: Tradition’s Mode of Being Between Alienness and Familiarity

The paper presents and characterizes certain aspects of the hermeneutic question related to tradition’s mode of being, also addressing the subject of translation. The hermeneutic task, that is, the interpretation of texts handed down from the past, is achieved on the account of two considerations: insight into the essence of historicism, and belief in the importance of tradition. The pivotal issue of the article is the discussion G. Figal’s recent formulation, that “the relationship of hermeneutics to tradition is not a self-evident but rather a broken relationship”. In the author’s approach, hermeneutics’ special place is defined “in-between” alienness and familiarity, but also between enlightenment and traditionalism.

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