Hermeneutics, understanding and interpretation: Comparative reading on the basics of Shabestari and Gadamer's vote

Hermeneutics is the battleground of new theories in the field of understanding and interpretation. The study of the principles of hermeneutic theories is important because it provides a suitable ground for critique and analysis. Understanding and interpretation as the central point of hermeneutic discussions is founded on the four pillars of author, text, interpreter and context. The distinction of hermeneutic approaches depends on the role of each of the four pillars in the process of understanding and interpretation. In this article, the foundations of the hermeneutical views of the contemporary Islamic thinker, Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari, and the contemporary Western hermeneuticist, Hans-Georg Gadamer, are scrutinized and analyzed. A comparative study of the four pillars of understanding and interpretation shows that the difference between Shabestari and Gadamer’s views in the first pillar, i.e., the role of the author, is definite and absolute; the principles of their views in the other three pillars, however, have both commonalities and differences. The most important commonalities are pluralism in text interpretation, the fact that understanding is affected by history, the necessity of interrogating the text, the hermeneutic cycle and the effect of presuppositions in the process of understanding and interpretation, and their main differences are over the effect of the role of the author’s intention or its elimination in the process of understanding and the methodicalness or unmethodicalness of the process of understanding.