Hermeneutic Truth and Ancient Greek Logos

Abstract

In European intellectual history, studies of hermeneutic experience and fundamental structure of truth were concerned with “objective” and “subjective” aspects, i. e., ontological
and epistemological ones. The paper tries to solve the principal problem: how do these aspects correspond to the subject matter of modern hermeneutic philosophy? The author shows that solving of this problem involves Heidegger’s interpretations of ancient Greek concepts of truth and logos, which are given in “Being and Time”. Heidegger’s “being-in-the-world” concept is explained concerning hermeneutic experience and ontological structure of truth. This concept explores the fundamental coordination of objective world, ordinary world and the life world. The author clarifies how Heidegger defines primordial hermeneutic experience, which refers to the concept of Logos in Ancient Greek philosophy. This concept means that a proposition does not relate to a mental “image” of reality but structurally relates to a thing itself. The Logos is the medium for a discourse and things; it’s “the place of truth”.