ABSTRACT
Heidegger's existential-ontological hermeneutic has been considered as a deepening of Kant's transcendental critique of knowledge. The critical reconstruction of individual and social processes supersedes the hermeneutic(al) interpretation of meaning. As far as the latter is concerned, critical hermeneutics commits an unjustifiable transgression by attempting to gain access to meaning outside or behind the intentional self-understanding of actors. The figure of the hermeneutic circle was used by Gadamer to reject the objectivism inherent in the historical-hermeneutical Geisteswissenschaften. Apel's programme is one of mediating the recognition of the existence of the hermeneutic circle underlying all thought-activity with the requirement of objective standards for the determination of truth-claims and the need for criteria for assessing the validity of proffered interpretations. The fulcrum of Apel's undertaking is nothing less than the 'transformation of philosophy'.
