Appear, sense and objectivity. On the debate on Realism, Phenomenology and Hermeneutics

This paper analyzes the recent problem of the nexus between realism and hermeneutic phenomenology from a specific approach: the dialogue between Markus Gabriel’s new realism (“fields of sense’s ontology”) and some German hermeneutic-phenomenological proposals that understand themselves in realist terms. I assert the hypothesis that a productive dialogue between these proposals is possible, based on a minimal understanding of realism as a viable ontological grounding. First, I will show the sense of the current resurgence of realism, in the context of contemporary continental ontology, situating its reception, critique and integration apropos of the field of recent phenomenology and hermeneutics. Secondly, I will analyze the proposal of new realism that is implied in M. Gabriel’s ontology of fields of meaning. Finally, I will review the proposals of Günter Figal, Anton Friedrich Koch and Tobias Keiling in their realist foundation. By means of such comparative work, I will conclude by affirming that the dialogue between both currents shares a non-reductive realist understanding of the question of the external world, which allows it to be understood as a search for a certain criterion of objectivity for what appears sensibly meaningful, trying to clarify why real things are interpretation-dependent (interpretable in general), but independent of individual interpretations. © 2023 Universidad Catolica Luis Amigo. All rights reserved.