Hermeneutics and 'die Außerlichkeit des Lebens'

The conviction that drives this paper is that hermeneutic theory is committed to a notion of truth that is not governed by the assumptions of the language and logic of the concept and its laws. Rather, a different experience guides hermeneutic theory, one that is wedded more closely to aesthetic experience as it is analysed by Kant in his kritik der Urteilskraft and Gadamer in Wahrheit und Methode. Such a notion of truth is better able to follow the movement of life that is disclosed by such experience. My intention is to look at Figal's notion of »die Außerlichkeit des Lebens« that is central to his project in Gegenstandlichkeit in order to ask how well it is able to carry forward with this central insight of hermeneutic theory.