ABSTRACT
The aesthetic consciousness of art is always secondary to the immediate truth-claim that proceeds from the work of art itself. The second mode of the experience of alienation is the historical consciousness: the noble and slowly perfected art of holding ourselves at a critical distance in dealing with witnesses to past life. Schleiermacher's hermeneutics show him to be a leading voice of historical romanticism. But at the same time, Schleiermacher kept the concern of the Christian theologian clearly in mind, intending his hermeneutics, as a general doctrine of the art of understanding, to be of value in the special work of interpreting Scripture. Schleiermacher defined hermeneutics as the art of avoiding misunderstanding. The nature of the hermeneutical experience is not that something is outside and desires admission. Misunderstanding and strangeness are not the first factors, so that avoiding misunderstanding can be regarded as the specific task of hermeneutics.
