The Role of Presupposition in Text Interpretation from Allamah Tabatabai and Gadamer’s Viewpoint

The role and interference of the author’s prejudgment, expectations and subjectivity when interpreting text are among the constituents of the philosophical hermeneutic. Proposing his particular theory on “the category of understanding” in the twentieth century, Gadamer sought to explain philosophical hermeneutics. He believes that no understanding occurs without prejudgment. The interpreters’ expectations, interests, and prejudgments are always involved in this process. Therefore, in his view, there is not an ultimate meaning to be achieved. Diversity and plurality of understanding (meaning) is the phenomenon that should be taken into account and there is not an ultimate and superior understanding. As an outstanding Muslim philosopher and interpreter, Allamah Tabatabai, though has not explicitly commented on the amount of prejudgment and prior knowledge in interpretation, has considered a kind of prior knowledge and presupposition (such as rational and Quranic presuppositions) which is necessary in interpretation and he has applied them. The paper aims at studying Gadamer and Allamah Tabatabai’s ideas about the amount of partiality interference in text interpretation and also attempting to explain the relationship and proximity between these two viewpoints regarding the usage of prior knowledge.