ABSTRACT
Literature and religion were the two most important shaping influences of human culture in the West until the scientific revolution, with its initial conception of a mechanical universe, undermined the hitherto generally accepted notion that the human mind participated in an inherently meaningful cosmos. 1 Recognizing this break with the long-standing notion that human consciousness participates in a greater, meaningful reality is crucial for any adequate understanding of philosophical hermeneutics because this particular twentieth-century branch of continental philosophy depicts itself as an attempt to heal the breach caused by the scientific revolution.
