Philosophical Hermeneutics: A Path to Intercultural Understanding Through Translation

Abstract

In philosophical hermeneutics, the thoughts of Gadamer and Ricoeur about conditions of attaining to understanding
are of utmost interest. Gadamer, by proposing "fusion of horizons" and considering the prejudices of interpreter as basic factors
of interpreting and understanding of all phenomena, and Ricoeur, by believing that we as human being only can understand the
Self through understanding Other, have paved the paths to attaining intercultural understanding. This study tried to investigate
the fundamental role of translation in the intercultural understanding from the window of philosophical hermeneutics, because
according to Gadamer all understandings occur in language and this asserts that translation, as a linguistic and cultural
phenomenon, can, after catastrophe of Babel, take the hearts and tongues of scattered human beings close to each other and
as Ricoeur believes, humanity enjoys equivalence in spite of alterity.