Abstract

Summary This paper tries to analyse the historical and present contribution of phenomenology to the hermeneutics of traditions. This attempt is achieved by retracing, in main lines, the history of phenomenological movement, his birth, constitution and evolution. In this proposal, it is showed how, by his both internal and external critics, classic phenomenology is moved to open itself to other contemporary trends of thought, namely hermeneutics and philosophy of language, and, in dialogue with these and with the human sciences, to transform itself in a more fruitful way. This is truth, first of all, in respect of Husserl’s·thought, which evolves from static phenomenology, centered in the analysis of the noetic-noematic intentional correlation from the point of view of a transcendental idealism, to genetic and historical phenomenology, based on the “Ur-Impression” of the living-present, as the founding phenomenon-event of all meaning’s constitution. A decisive point is made by Heidegger in stressing the hermeneutic, discursive and historical character of all ontological understanding. This allows emphasizing the question of the sense formation (Sinnbildung), which precedes and enables all symbolic and signic institution of meaning (Sinnstiftung), therefore providing a guiding line for search on the topic of the historical constitution of language and traditions.