Vattimo’s nihilistic hermeneutics: from the fabulation of the world to history as the history of salvation

Abstract

In this article, we seek to problematize the issue of metaphysical truth based on the thinking of Gianni Vattimo and his proposal for a nihilistic hermeneutics. In this sense, we address the current relevance of the problem and raise the possibility of a fabulation of the world and a conception of history different from the linear one for reflection. In the treatment of hermeneutics, it is convenient to emphasize that the dichotomy between subject and object must be overcome, after all, before subject and object, there is a world of meaning that, in turn, allows for a meaningful encounter between them. In this reality, the past is not closed, ready and finished, but we can return to it as interpreters. The eternal return deconstructs the metaphysical subject's claim to truth, always placing it in this condition of openness, of interpretability in the face of that which is never overcome. Thus, hermeneutics is nihilistic, not only by eroding any stability of interpretative truth, but by showing that before the subject there is a given historical horizon that is independent of its “truths”. The interpreter who collaborates in this construction of knowledge is the emancipated human being who has the courage to place himself in a plural world, without fear, a less unitary world, and therefore less peaceful. However, there is no defense of relativism, after all, the fact of recognizing that truth is interpretation does not mean that everything should be accepted. Interpretation must be qualified. Thus, history as the history of salvation is creativity and must point to the symbolic, to that which is always possible and which occurs as an opening of meaning in the letter and the text.