What is hermeneutics about?

Unlike interpretation, the word hermeneutics first appears in the mid-eighteenth century, and becomes entrenched as a mode of approaching texts under Friedrich Schleiermacher. But its contemporary relevance, and that which makes it central to contemporary literary theory, arises because of German philosopher Martin Heidegger. Heidegger's 'linguistic turn' is foundational to the postmodern literary theories that dominate the academy today, and also plays a vital role in schools of jurisprudence, in our understanding of Scripture, etc.
Philosophical hermeneutics is not to be confused with interpretation per se. It is neither exegesis or eisegesis, strictly speaking. It is dealing more with the problem of understanding in the light of the dominance of Kantian reasoning in the continental philosophical tradition. The consequence of Kant's 'Copernican turn' is that nothing is regarded as self-evident any more. All truths require 'proof', but there are no self-evident understandings that ground this exercise. Life is thereby hollowed out of all certainty, and an agenda of self-authoring one's one existence begins.
This lecture lays out a general framework of discussion based on the introduction to Gerald Bruns' book Hermeneutics: Ancient and Modern.
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