The Hermeneutical Actuality of the Paradox in Kafka’s The Trial

ABSTRACT In this article, I argue that Kafka’s The Trial, when examined for its philosophical content, makes three central claims. The novel highlights (1) the sheer inevitability of presupposing paradoxical principles in modernity; (2) the necessity of grounding those principles in a manner that combines actuality and possibility; and (3) the difficulty of such a grounding in modernity. I attempt to show that the central ethical principle in The Trial, which is presupposed by both the court and the protagonist Josef K., is the paradoxical interconnection between subjective participation and a universal standard. Given the paradoxical interconnections between subjectivity and universality, one side cannot be true unless both sides are true in their paradoxical unity. The clash between Josef K. and the court revolves around the grounding of this paradox. While Josef K. views the paradox as a possibility, the court insists on its actuality. If the narrative is accepted as factual, the novel seems to endorse possibility—every actual beginning is flawed. Nevertheless, the novel provides hermeneutical hints that expose the inadequacy of its own narrator. When the novel’s hermeneutical insights are fully brought out, actuality is redeemed. This shows that, while the paradox of the interconnection between subjectivity and universality must always remain an unexhausted possibility, it must also be grounded in hermeneutical actuality.