Interpretazione e trasformazione sociale. Sulla funzione della professione filosofica

The paper discusses the function of the philosophical profession, focusing on the role that hermeneutical thought can play in rethinking the place of philosophy. At first, I sum up the instances of a Marxist, a therapeutic–consolatory and an analytical perspective: philosophy must transform the world; philosophy offers existential treatments; philosophy goes in search of specific objects. Secondly, I show the reason behind the deep and ambiguous relationship between philosophy and other technical–professional sectors of society — from antiquity to the present. After this, I clarify how the concept of truth proposed by contemporary hermeneutical thought enables to connect and renew these three instances, because it allows for rethinking the concept of transformation as well as for understanding the falsifying and subjective dimensions of this concept. Finally, I underline the shocking effect of a philosophical transformation, specifying that the object of this kind of transformation also extends to common sense and the social world. At last, I suggest a moderate apology for hermeneutics based on the conviction that hermeneutics is able to educate to take care of subjects.