Introduction

Contemporary hermeneutics is characterized by conflicting views; it is possible to distinguish three clearly separable strands: hermeneutical theory, hermeneutic philosophy, and critical hermeneutics. Hermeneutical theory focuses on the problematic of a general theory of interpretation as the methodology for the human sciences. Hermeneutical theory as epistemology and methodology of understanding was further developed by Dilthey at the turn of the nineteenth century. Dilthey initially attempted to solve the problem of hermeneutics, which constituted the 'historical consciousness', by recurring to the Romanticist concern with 'lived experience'. Turning later to Hegel's theory of objective spirit and adopting the distinction between meaning and expression suggested by Husserl's Logical Investigations Dilthey came close to the mediation Betti recently achieved between the historical consciousness and the striving for theoretical truth. Hermeneutic philosophy puts forward an unjustifiable claim to universality by regarding tradition embedded in language as forming a supportive consensus that cannot itself be questioned since it provides the conditions of its possibility.