Critical Assessment of Hermeneutics of Paul Ricœur

Given the profound effect of hermeneutics in religious understanding, study and criticism of it is an avenue to reply existing doubts in this area and to develop religious sciences. Paul Ricœur, the contemporary philosopher, is a prominent thinker in the hermeneutics and methodologies of sciences, strengthened the philosophical hermeneutics versus other related thoughts concerning the methodology of understanding, and developed a reformed and compound method in interpretation of texts and understanding of religion. He has endeavored to provide a logical process from stage of reading to interpretation of understanding, employing phenomenological method and combining the element of structure explanation with element of understanding and ownership. The process, from one hand, has been formed based on independence of the meaning of text from intention of the author and unity of the meaning of the text, and from other hand has resisted absolute relativity, and have presented a criterion for judgement among interpretation. This article endeavors to address the most important element of hermeneutics of Paul Ricœur, criticizing the weak points and strong points of it by using fundamental thoughts of Islamic sciences.