ABSTRACT
A contextualist theory of truth, meaning and interpretation favoured by some philosophers-notably W.V. Quine-and also by many cultural and literary theorists working in the broadly hermeneutic tradition that runs from Schleiermacher to Heidegger and Gadamer. On this view it is impossible to assign meanings or interpret beliefs except in a context wider than that of the individual statement or utterance. Opinions vary as to just how widely this interpretive ‘horizon’ has to be drawn, or whether-in principle-there is any limit to the range of relevant background knowledge that might be involved. For the most part philosophers in the Anglo-American (‘analytic’) camp tend to adopt a pragmatic outlook and not worry too much about the demarcation issue while ‘continental’ thinkers follow Heidegger in espousing a depthhermeneutic approach that concerns itself centrally with just this issue.
