Abstract

This chapter explores Friedrich Schlegel's contribution to the development of hermeneutics, the theory of interpretation. German scholar Hermann Patsch identifies the following four doctrines as contributions of Schlegel's that were subsequently taken over and modified by Schleiermacher: philology/hermeneutics is not merely a science but an art; it is necessary in interpretation to understand an author better than he understood himself; hermeneutics and criticism are interdependent; and divination plays an important role in criticism/hermeneutics. Indeed, Schlegel deserves much of the credits for several additional doctrines in Schleiermacher's hermeneutics as well. This chapter also emphasizes that part of Schlegel 's achievement lies in the fact that he prominently continued both Herder's emphasis on the significance of genre and Herder's central insights concerning genre.