ABSTRACT
This chapter offers preliminary observations and reflections on emotionality, interpretation, and understanding. On the basis of emotionality, the person is moved to act morally, on behalf of him and of others. The meanings expressed in and through emotionality are less subject to the power of fleeting interests, the demands of practicality, the contingencies of logic, or the struggles of practical concern than are primarily cognitive and taken-for-granted meanings. The moral person is revealed through emotionality. Understanding and interpretation are interrelated processes that rest on the feelings individuals feel when they grasp the meaning of another's actions. Hermeneutics is the work of interpretation and understanding. The methodology of interpretation is hermeneutics. The subject matter of hermeneutic interpretation is interactional experience. This experience is rooted in the conduct of individuals. The human emotions that reveal the deep meanings individuals hold about themselves and others are the stuff ordinary people are made of.
