Hans-Georg Gadamer was a German philosopher best known for his work on hermeneutics. However, it could be argued that his greatest contribution to this field can be summed up in a simple phrase: “Being that can be understood is language.” (Truth and Method 470). Before one can even begin to understand this phrase, one must first accept that Gadamer refused to separate doing philosophy from doing the history of philosophy. According to him, to philosophise well meant that one needed to be conscious
holistic epistemology according to which all meaning is context-dependent and permanently anticipated from a particular horizon, perspective or background of intelligibility. The result is a powerful critique directed against the ideal of objectivity. Gadamer shares with Heidegger the hermeneutic reflections developed in Sein und Zeit and the critique of objectivity, describing the cultural activity as an endless process of "fusions of horizons." On the one hand, this is an echo of the Heideggerian holism
Recovering Paul Ricoeur's Intervention in the Gadamer-Habermas Debate ABSTRACT: In this paper I will examine a contemporary response to an important debate in the "science" of hermeneutics, along with some cross-cultural implications. I discuss Paul Ricoeur's intervention in the debate between Gadamer and Habermas concerning the proper task of hermeneutics as a mode of philosophical interrogation in the late 20th century. The confrontation between Gadamer and Habermas turns on the assessment of tradition
To what extent does Hans-Georg Gadamer’s theory of science provide a basis for the articulation of an ecological hermeneutics? As "hermeneutics" is the art of interpretation and understanding, "ecological hermeneutics" is understood as the act of interpreting the impact of technology within the lifeworld. I consider the potential for ecological hermeneutics based upon Gadamer’s theory of science. First, I outline his theory of science. Second, I delineate ecological hermeneutics as an application
Therefore, it is opportune to re-think the efforts that go into the act of reading and how the translation perspective modifies and directs our reading processes. Hans Georg Gadamer, in his work on "Wieweit schreibt Sprache das Denken vor?" ("To What Extent Does Language Prescribe Thinking?"), succinctly expresses the relationship between reading and translating in the following manner: "Lesen ist schon Übersetzen und Übersetzen
The Feminine Quest in Surfacing and Song of Solomon Margaret Atwood in her novel Surfacing and Toni Morrison in her novel Song of Solomon require their heroines to pass through a stage of self-interpretation as a prerequisite for re-inventing the self. This stage in the feminine journey manifests a critical act typically absent in the traditional male journey, and one that places Atwood and Morrison's heroines at odds with the patriarchal community. If authors of feminine journeys meet the
Liberal Hope" in his Contingency, irony, and solidarity (henceforth CIS) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989). (17) Richard Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (henceforth PMN) (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1980) pp.357-365. (18) Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method (T&M) translation of Wahrheit und Methode (W&M) by G. Barden & J. Cumming (New York: Seabury Press, 1975). (19) T&M, pp.10-11; W&M, pp.6-7. (20) PMN pp.358-359. (21) PMN p.351. (22) CIS, p.73. (23) CIS, pp.74-75
goes back to a history o... ... middle of paper ... ...es. Grand Rapids, Mich., Eerdmans and Amsterdam, Rodopi, 1989. In the series Currents of Encounter. (3) See the earlier mentioned works by Neusner/Chilton and Cantwell Smith. (4) Hans Georg Gadamer and Thomas Kuhn also contributed to the decline of identifying knowledge with only true (propositional) belief, with assent to rational understanding. Barry Allen has recently taken up this theme in various articles. See for example "The Ambition
Dialogue, Dialectic, and Maieutic: Plato's Dialogues As Educational Models ABSTRACT: Plato’s Socrates exemplies the progress of the dialectical method of inquiry. Such a method is capable of actualizing an interlocutor’s latent potential for philosophizing dialectically. The dianoetic practice of Plato’s Socrates is a mixture of dialectical assertions and questions arising out of his ethical concern for the interlocutor. The Dialogues act as educational models exhibiting how one inquires and learns