ABSTRACT
The necessary as well as autotelic function of understanding one's contemporaries or, in fact, any human expression, for individual and social existence Dilthey successfully established in his outline of The Rise of Hermeneutics. Through it, the limits of one's time are transcended and new sources of strength are opened up. As the title of the essay suggests, it is mainly concerned with outlining the emergence of a discipline that regulates, and thereby improves, the 'art of understanding permanently fixed expressions of life'. The methodology of this activity which Dilthey refers to as 'exegesis or interpretation' has come to be known as 'hermeneutics'. The exposition of the rules that guide successful interpretation not only leads to more efficient interpretation but also safeguards the general validity of its results from intrusion of arbitrariness and subjective elements. It represents a Kunstlehre, that is the systematization of formal procedures to assist the art of understanding in its endeavour to arrive at certainty of knowledge.
