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Title:       The Hermeneutic Fractal
Date:        2022-06-15
Tags:        box3
Link:        https://spool-five.com/box3/20220615t000005--the-hermeneutic-fractal__box3/
Word Count:  321
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#philosophy[1], #hermeneutics[2]
=>[1] https://spool-five.com/box3/20220602t000000--philosophy__box3/
=>[2] https://spool-five.com/box3/20230826t002030--hermeneutics__philosophy_box3/

There has been some debate over the image of the "circle" when discussing
the hermeneutic circle[3]. A circle is an established geometric shape
with highly regular features like a centre-point and so on. However,
when most people talk about the hermeneutic circle, they are talking
about a kind of _recursive relation_ between two points. It is more
appropriate, perhaps, to describe this relation as _circlular_ rather
than as a _circle_. For example, Paul Ricoeur tends to prefer the metaphor
of a _spiral_, since the hermeneutic relation implies some kind of
movement outside of a simple circle-like orbit. When travelling the path
of the circle, we always arrive back where we started. In the process
of hermeneutic understanding, however, the is a _returning motion_, but
we never arrive exactly where we started. When I travel abroad for the
first time, I learn about new cultures and languages, then, when I
_return home_, my home has also been transformed, I now notice peculiarities
about my own culture that aren't shared elsewhere, and so on. So, the
motion is more akin to a spiral than a circle.
=>[3] https://spool-five.com/box3/20220615t000006--the-hermeneutic-circle__box3/

However, we can perhaps expand this even further. A fractal is a type
of geometric figure that has:

-   infinite depth
-   patterns that _scale_

The hermeneutic process works in a similar sense, there are "circles
all the way down". There is a hermeneutic, circular relation between
the reader and the book, between the overall book and the chapters of
the book, between a chapter and its scenes, between a sentence and a
paragraph, between words and sentences, between the reader and themselves,
between the book and its historical context, and on and on _ad infinitum_.
Each level of relation is like a fractal viewed at different scales.

:TODO: [maybe something here about James' The figure in the Carpet]