This article analyzes to what extent Darwin created a hermeneutics and how this hermeneutics guided Freud’s epistemological position. For this purpose, it first moves away from a certain widespread conception, even among biologists, according to which Darwinism could be reduced to the idea of natural selection. Since most readers of psychoanalysis and psychopathology ignore this type of discussion, the article seeks to give special attention to it. Then, it shows how Freud inserts his contribution to science following that of Darwin. Both revealed - each in his own way and with different purposes - that a materialistic investigation of the psyche based on a naturalistic hermeneutic is possible. Finally, it resumes the critiques made by the philosophy of psychoanalysis to Habermas and Ricoeur’s interpretations to highlight, with the help of aspects emphasized by Lacan, how the theoretical and clinical positions linked to such interpretations differ from Freud’s proposals.
Keywords
Freud; Darwin; hermeneutics; materialism; science