Paul Ricoeur's understanding of language and hermeneutics

The study deals with French philosopher and thinker Paul Ricoeur?s understanding of language and hermenutic main goal of Ricoeur?s philosophy is to free human discourse from fragmentation and to unite it. According to Ricoeur, this unity can not be reached without language and hermenutic. In this respect Ricoeur?s understanding of language and hermenutic is dealt with considering his goal to unite human discourse. This unity constitutes the main axis of this study. In the first section his understanding of language is discussed within the limits our study. In this section theories and debates on language since antiquity until today are discussed taking into account the importance of their philosophical implications. In the second section definition, meanining and history of hermeneutic thinking from antiquity until today is dealt with. Lastly, as our main subject, Paul Ricoeur?s understanding of language and hermeneutic is dealt with. Both his theory and relationship with other theories are discussed. In the conclusion section conclusions of the study are interpreted and evaluated.