Abstract
In this essay I contend that in order for philosophical hermeneutics to be a coherent theory of truth, it must justify its use of the concept of interpretation rather than merely accept it as a fact of our situation. In order to furnish a foundation for hermeneutics that is neither the relativism of the unending of interpretations nor the dogmatism of an absolute criterion for hermeneutics, I turn to Kant’s transcendental deduction in the Critique of Pure Reason, which serves both to question and establish foundations. Thus, I argue that hermeneutics becomes “philosophical” when it is no longer concerned with interpretation in its technical application or as an unquestioned method, but takes up the issue of interpretation itself through the justification of its own principles and foundations – a method that I here explore as a “hermeneutic deduction.”

Keywords: hermeneutics, deduction, criticism, weak thought