ABSTRACT
Ricoeur interestingly inverts the relationship between spoken and written discourse which, since Dilthey, was characterized by the primacy of the former over the latter. Ricoeur follows Gadamer in affirming the 'autonomy of the text' but still adheres to the hermeneutical pre-supposition of the fixedness of the expressions of life which, in his hands, acquires a dimension that links him closely with Betti's theory when he extends the character of fixedness even to meaning. Ricoeur's theory of interpretation indeed succeeds in overcoming Dilthey's dichotomy of verstehen and explanation. In contrast to critical hermeneutics his use of objectifying techniques remains within the overarching 'fusion of horizon'. At the same time, Ricoeur provides an account of the interpretation of texts that is already prefigured in Schleiermacher's theory of interpretation which had achieved the integration of the hermeneutic(al) interpretation of meaning and of grammatical analysis – only that now it takes place on the level of a sophisticated, contemporary development of the subject-object problematic.
