Labyrinth: An International Journal for Philosophy, Value Theory and Sociocultural Hermeneutics
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Modelling Speech and Speakers: Gadamer and Davidson on dialogue, agreement, and intelligible difference
Full text linkThis paper examines Gadamer\u27s and Davidson\u27s dialogical models of interpretation. It shows them to be comparable, but importantly dissimilar with respect to the kind of agreement they require for communication to be possible. It is argued that this difference entails different concepts of alterity: they model not only how we talk, but implicitly who we can intelligibly talk to. Another important contribution of this paper is to uncover a distinction in Gadamer between two kinds of agreement missed so far by all commentators. The final section of this paper defends a second thesis, namely that the degree of agreement required by the models is proportional to the conceptual difference it can make intelligible. Hence, the extent of graspable cultural difference is not only an empirical matter, but is entailed by our choice of model
Hermeneutic courage. What Gadamer (and Arendt) can tell us about political thinking
Full text linkHans-Georg Gadamer, despite his exchanges with and reception by major figures in the field of political theory, is often thought of as a philosopher as opposed to a political theorist. For instance, the title of one of his essays, "On the Political Incompetence of Philosophy," is sometimes taken to indicate that Gadamer thought of his own philosophy as "politically incompetent" (Code 2003, 15). In this paper, I argue that Gadamer\u27s hermeneutic philosophy is deeply concerned with our relation to the political world. To bring out these political concerns, I put Gadamer in conversation with Hannah Arendt, who overtly disavowed philosophy in favor of political theory. I show that Gadamer and Arendt share many of the same worries about the solitary model of much philosophy – particularly that of Heidegger – and that both try to promote a more involved, worldly mode of thinking. For Arendt, this mode of thinking attends in large part to the newness and distinctiveness of other people, whereas Gadamer emphasizes what other people say and how we must relate to them if we are to understand what they are telling us. I argue that although these are complementary ways of addressing political thinking, one important advantage of Gadamer\u27s account is the way it brings into view the centrality of courage for understanding our shared political world. Because understanding frequently requires that we question our identities and renegotiate our existing relation to the world in often uncomfortable ways, political thinking involves what I call "hermeneutic courage."
The Hermeneutics of Tradition: Political Implications of a Philosophical Legacy
Full text linkThe interrogation of the problematic character of established traditions has become an increasingly dominant feature of contemporary political and social discourse. Gadamer\u27s discussion of tradition takes on an often-unacknowledged utility in light of these discussions by both observing the subtle ways in which tradition persists even in times of social change while also placing an emphasis on the volitional (hence, risky and contingent) character of engagements with tradition. Gadamer\u27s approach allows for a fidelity to tradition that nonetheless allows for a critical, emancipatory engagement with it, a precursor to the more explicitly political projects of hermeneutic thinkers such as Luigi Pareyson and Gianni Vattimo. This hermeneutic lineage offers our modern age a chance to embrace a new and more authentic relationship with the traditions in which we always-already find ourselves situated by giving us the opportunity to make those traditions speak to the challenges of our tumultuous present
A few remarks on naturalistic attempts to rationalise hermeneutics
Full text linkThe aim of the text is to consider Gianni Vattimo\u27s claim that hermeneutics needs to be more rational due to its criticised relativism and aestheticism. From this perspective, the author considers the projects proposed by Bartosz Brożek and Chrysostomos Mantzavinos, based on the assumption that the cognitive phenomena underlying the understanding of human behaviour and the resulting artefacts can be described using naturalistic methods. Finally, the question is considered whether these attempts, coming from outside the hermeneutic movement, offer hope for eliminating the flaws of hermeneutics mentioned by Vattimo, and what the prospects are for further research on this issue
On the (Un)Stopping of Our Ears
Full text linkThis paper is concerned with the problem of speaking past one another due to an asymmetry of the interlocutors\u27 backgrounds. When individuals with different levels of relative privilege interact, the party with relative privilege may fail to engage with what is being communicated. I take up critical Gadamerian hermeneutics to ask how we, as individuals with relative privilege, can \u27unstop\u27 our ears so that the burden of explanation does not (unfairly) remain on those we hurt by our mishearing/non-hearing. I offer two methods to achieve this \u27unstopping\u27: \u27critical self-knowledge\u27 through Quassim Cassam\u27s \u27Vice Epistemology\u27 framework and \u27critical world-knowledge\u27 through the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory (Max Horkheimer and Jürgen Habermas, specifically). I then take up contemporary critical hermeneutics (Lorenzo Simpson) to show how, through the application of the critical methods, one might be able to achieve a useful, cross-cultural dialogue. This is imperative given our inexorably multi-cultural world today
Hans Belting and Hermeneutics – Between Unease and Awareness
Full text linkBeginning with an article by Hans Robert Jauss, which detects in Hans Belting some "unease" towards hermeneutics, this paper claims instead that Belting, in his studies, manifests deep hermeneutic awareness, among other things indebted in many respects to Jauss\u27 reception theory itself. Nonetheless, it is still possible to notice some "unease," which emerges in the way Belting considers hermeneutics among the "methods and games" of history of art. In this regard, Belting\u27s analysis – concerning the relationship between iconology and hermeneutics and between philosophical and art historical hermeneutics – appears densely loaded with meaning but also partial. This is due to the fact that he limits himself to critically discussing only one tendency, well represented, in his eyes, by Wilhelm Dilthey, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Hans Sedlmayr, the latter being the only representative of art historical hermeneutics that Belting takes into account
Rivalität, Affekt, Interesse. Ansatzpunkte einer materialistischen Kriegstheorie
Full text linkIn debate with Bernhard H. F. Taureck, Burkhard Liebsch and other authors, we try to develop a materialistic theory of war. Central to this are the rivalries between sovereign states, which have extended and become more complex in the course of globalization. Both political-economic and symbolic-emotional interests are bundled in them. The competition between states, only partially curbed by supranational authorities, also reflects in so-called international law. In contrast to the domestic legal system, this has indeed only limited legal character, as Thucydides’ famous Melian dialogue shows
A Devil under the Guise of a Good Conscience
Full text linkBuried within Fyodor Dostoevsky\u27s works are glimpses of corrupt individuals who rise to the fore every now and then. Without these occasional revelations, not many would notice how diabolical an ordinary person really is. Although Dostoevsky does generalize that human nature can be quite vile, a character like the mysterious visitor from The Brothers Karamazov displays that nature without striving to be extraordinary as Dostoevsky\u27s other prolific characters. Something troubling still lurks within this mundane type. Relying on moral dilemmas presented by ancient thinkers will help this project expose and elaborate on the unsavouriness behind the activities and dispositions of Dostoevsky\u27s minute character. With the mysterious visitor as the prime focus, we discover how an individual distorts one\u27s personal development and decent relations with other humane beings
War-like Violence: Violating the Ontological Contract
Full text linkExamining the continuities and differences between war and war-like violence, focusing on the war like violence of racism and rape through the lens of Sartre’s ontology of “The Look”, Merleau-Ponty’s concept of a body schema, and Beauvoir’s analysis of women as “the sex”, I argue that war-like violence deploys the affect perceptions of shame, degrada-tion, humiliation and disgust to violate the ontological contract of intersubjectivity and mutual vulnerability
Kriege und fatale Illusionen der Besiegbarkeit als Bedrohung. Metatheoretische Beobachtungen und Desiderate gegenwärtiger Philosophie kriegerischer Gewalt
Full text linkWars and Fatal Illusions of Defeatability as a Threat. Metatheoretical Observations and Desiderata of a Contemporary Philosophy of Martial Violence
This essay deals with the question how war threatens us even when peace seems to reign. Refering to Heraklit, Kant, and recent theories of war, the author takes answers to this question into account especially with respect to the problem if it is possible to keep in check illusions which make us believe that one can get rid of enmity by way of \u27final solutions\u27