Heidegger, Gadamer, and Modernity David Liakos
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
A Hermeneutic Phenomenology: the Death of the Other Understood As Event
Journal of Applied Hermeneutics March 20, 2017 The Author(s) 2017 A Hermeneutic Phenomenology: The Death of the Other Understood as Event Harris B. Bechtol Abstract This is a phenomenological description of what is happening when we experience the death of another that interprets surviving or living on after such death by employing the term event. This term of art from phenomenology and hermeneutics is used to describe a disruptive and transformative experience of singularity. I maintain that the death of the other is an experience of an event because such death is unpredictable or without a horizon of expectation, excessive or without any principle of sufficient reason, and transformative or a death of the world itself. Keywords Death, Mourning, the Other, Event, Phenomenology, Derrida And you, O tree, whose branches already are casting their shadows on one poor body and soon will be overshadowing two, preserve the marks of our death; let your fruit forever be dark as a token of mourning, a monument marking the blood of two lovers. (Ovid, 2004, 4.157-161) Poetry, literature, and art in general have a unique ability to expose us to common experiences so that we see the heart of these experiences as we live them out in everyday life. Art can function as a mirror of our deepest philosophical concerns by highlighting our average, everyday understanding of phenomena. Though classified under myth, Ovid’s account of how the mulberry tree came to bear red instead of white berries functions in just this way. He shows in the tragic love of Thisbe and Pyramus how the death of a loved one is carried by the world itself through the world’s own metamorphosis. -
International Yearbook for Hermeneutics Internationales Jahrbuch Für Hermeneutik
International Yearbook for Hermeneutics Internationales Jahrbuch für Hermeneutik edited by Günter Figal in cooperation with Damir Barbaric´, Béla Bacsó, Gottfried Boehm, Luca Crescenzi, Ingolf Dalferth, Nicholas Davey, Donatella Di Cesare, Jean Grondin, Pavel Kouba, Joachim Lege, Hideki Mine, Hans Ruin, John Sallis, Dennis Schmidt, Bernhard Zimmermann 15 · 2016 Focus: Humanism Schwerpunkt: Humanismus Mohr Siebeck Authors e-offprint with publisher’s permission. Editorial team/Redaktion: Jon Burmeister, Ph.D. Dr. David Espinet Dr. Tobias Keiling, Ph.D. Nikola Mirković, M.A. Jerome Veith, Ph.D. Contents Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg Philosophisches Seminar Platz der Universität 3 79085 Freiburg Focus: Humanism Germany Schwerpunkt: Humanismus The Yearbook calls for contributions in English or German on topics in Philosophical Hermeneutics and bordering disciplines. Please send manuscripts to: yearbook@philo Bernhard Zimmermann (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg) sophie.uni-freiburg.de. All articles, except when invited, are subject to blind review. Humanismus und humanistische Bildung . 1 We assume that manuscripts are unpublished and have not been submitted for publi- cation elsewhere. Citations are to be made according to the style in the present volume. Gert-Jan van der Heiden (Radboud University) Detailed information on formatting manuscripts can be downloaded from: http://www. philosophie.uni-freiburg.de/iyh. Technology and Childhood. On a Double Debt of the Human . 16 Das Jahrbuch bittet um Zusendungen auf Deutsch oder Englisch zu Themen der Philoso- (Freiburg) phischen Hermeneutik und angrenzender Disziplinen. Bitte senden Sie Manuskripte an: Antonia Egel [email protected]. Alle Artikel, die nicht auf Einladung des Heraus- Warum lesen und wenn ja, dann was? gebers verfasst worden sind, werden in einem blind review-Verfahren begutachtet. -
Hermeneutics, Exteriority, and Transmittability
Research research in phenomenology 47 (2017) 331–350 in Phenomenology brill.com/rp Are We a Conversation? Hermeneutics, Exteriority, and Transmittability Theodore George Texas A&M University [email protected] Abstract Hermeneutics is widely celebrated as a call for “conversation”—that is, a manner of in- quiry characterized by humility and openness to the other that eschews the pretenses of calculative rationality and resists all finality of conclusions. In this, conversation takes shape in efforts to understand and interpret that always unfold in the transmis- sion of meaning historically in language. Yet, the celebration of hermeneutics for hu- mility and openness appears, at least, to risk embarrassment in light of claims found in Heidegger and Gadamer that conversation is always contingent on “prior accord.” Critics of hermeneutics have, for some decades, interpreted this claim of prior accord to refer to a common tradition, so that the understanding achieved in conversation is restricted to those who belong to the same heritage. In this essay, the author argues that although Heidegger and Gadamer often suggest this prior accord is a matter of common tradition, crucial threads of Gadamer’s thought, in particular, recommend a different view. Gadamer, in these threads, offers that “prior accord” concerns not a common tradition, but, on the contrary, the call to participate in hermeneutic trans- mission as such, even—and no doubt especially—when those in conversation are not familiar with the tradition or language of the other. With this, we are called to converse not first by what the other says, but by the fact that we do not yet understand, that we have already misunderstood, and that we perhaps cannot understand. -
Sheila M. Ross
ISSN 1393-614X Minerva - An Internet Journal of Philosophy 8 (2004): 132-168 ____________________________________________________ Gadamer’s Late Thinking on Verweilen Sheila M. Ross Abstract This essay presents Gadamer’s interest in temporality as his strategy for advancing the importance of hermeneutics as philosophy of experience, a strategy that I show becomes significantly more salient with the appearance of his 1992 essay, Wort und Bild. I show how temporal categories function to demarcate the ontological imbalance that is of such central concern in Gadamer’s philosophical project. The paper also considers some common misunderstandings of Gadamer that result from a failure to take full account of his experiential orientation, and thus prevent recognition of its radical potential. A full account must include a grasp of the exemplariness of art in his philosophy, and in this connection, the essay considers, not Gadamer’s ideal of lyric poetry, but the quite distinct exemplariness of narrative art. Though its temporal structure would seem particularly pertinent, it is not this feature, it turns out, that makes it particularly worthy of hermeneutical reflection. I. Close to the Living World: Late Crystallizations This essay considers Gadamer’s attribution of a special temporality to the experience of “tarrying” (Verweilen), a term that for Gadamer denotes the exemplary hermeneutical eventfulness of application. Gadamer has frequently mentioned that the quality of time during tarrying is its definitive feature, and therefore this particular thread about time in Gadamer would appear to be rather fundamental. However, it is difficult to find any substantial discussion of the overall significance of Gadamer’s particular thinking about time. -
Dr. Theodore George Professor and Head Department of Philosophy
Dr. Theodore George Professor and Head Department of Philosophy Texas A&M University [email protected] Areas of specialization: Gadamer, contemporary hermeneutics, contemporary continental ethics, philosophy of art and aesthetics, Hegel, German Idealism and Romanticism Areas of competence: continental European philosophy since Kant, the history of Western philosophy Education: Ph.D. in Philosophy, Villanova University, 2000 Dissertation: “Hegel’s Speculative Theory of Political Life: Community and Tragedy in the Phenomenology of Spirit” Committee: Dr. Dennis Schmidt (Director), Dr. Walter Brogan, Dr. Julie Klein Fulbright Fellow, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, 1998–1999 Host: Prof. Dr. Günter Figal M.A. in Philosophy, Villanova University, 1997 B.A. in Philosophy and German (double major), Whitman College, 1993 Cum Laude, with honors and distinction in Philosophy and with distinction in German Thesis: “The Structure of Rebirth in Walden: A Connection with Thus Spoke Zarathustra” Appointments: Head, Department of Philosophy, Texas A&M University, 2015–present (Research leave 2018–2019; Interim Head 2014–2015) Professor of Philosophy, Texas A&M University, 2020–present Associate Professor of Philosophy, Texas A&M University, 2007–2020 Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Texas A&M University, 2001–2007 Honorary Appointment: Senior Researcher, College of Fellows, Philosophy Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia, 2016–present Editorial Positions: Editor, Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2012–present -
Vietnamese Existential Philosophy: a Critical Reappraisal
VIETNAMESE EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHY: A CRITICAL REAPPRAISAL A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Hi ền Thu Lươ ng May, 2009 i © Copyright 2009 by Hi ền Thu Lươ ng ii ABSTRACT Title: Vietnamese Existential Philosophy: A Critical Reappraisal Lươ ng Thu Hi ền Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Temple University, 2009 Doctoral Advisory Committee Chair: Lewis R. Gordon In this study I present a new understanding of Vietnamese existentialism during the period 1954-1975, the period between the Geneva Accords and the fall of Saigon in 1975. The prevailing view within Vietnam sees Vietnamese existentialism during this period as a morally bankrupt philosophy that is a mere imitation of European versions of existentialism. I argue to the contrary that while Vietnamese existential philosophy and European existentialism share some themes, Vietnamese existentialism during this period is rooted in the particularities of Vietnamese traditional culture and social structures and in the lived experience of Vietnamese people over Vietnam’s 1000-year history of occupation and oppression by foreign forces. I also argue that Vietnamese existentialism is a profoundly moral philosophy, committed to justice in the social and political spheres. Heavily influenced by Vietnamese Buddhism, Vietnamese existential philosophy, I argue, places emphasis on the concept of a non-substantial, relational, and social self and a harmonious and constitutive relation between the self and other. The Vietnamese philosophers argue that oppressions of the mind must be liberated and that social structures that result in violence must be changed. Consistent with these ends Vietnamese existentialism proposes a multi-perspective iii ontology, a dialectical view of human thought, and a method of meditation that releases the mind to be able to understand both the nature of reality as it is and the means to live a moral, politically engaged life. -
A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Inquiry Into the Lived Experiences of Taiwanese Parachute Students
A HERMENEUTIC PHENOMENOLOGICAL INQUIRY INTO THE LIVED EXPERIENCES OF TAIWANESE PARACHUTE STUDENTS By Benjamin T. OuYang Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillm ent Of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2004 Advisory Committee: Professor Francine Hultgren, Chair and Advisor Associate Professor Jing Lin Ms. Su -Chen Mao Associate Professor Marylu McEwen Dr. Maria del Carmen Torres -Queral Copyright by Benjamin T. OuYang 2004 ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: A HERMENEUTIC PHENOMENOLOGICAL INQUIRY INTO THE LIVED EXPERIENCES OF TAIWANESE PARACHUTE STUDENTS. Benjamin T. OuYang, Doctor of Philosophy, 2004 Dissertatio n directed by: Dr. Francine H. Hultgren Department of Education Policy and Leadership The purpose of this study is to understand the lived experiences of Taiwanese parachute students, so named because of their being sent to study in the United States, fr equently unaccompanied by their parents. Significant themes are revealed through hermeneutic phenomenological methodology and developed using the powerful metaphor of landing. Seven parachute students took part in several in -depth conversations with the researcher about their experiences living in the States, immersed in the English language and the American culture. Their stories are reflective accounts, which when coupled with literary and philosophic sources, reveal the essence of this experience of living in a foreign land. Voiced by teenage and young adult parachute students, the metaphor of landing as shown in their search for establishing a home and belonging, is the slate for the writing of this work’s main themes. The research opens up to a deeper understanding of this phenomenon in such themes as foreignness, landing and surveying the area; lost in the language; homesickness; and trying to establish friendships. -
Beauvoir on Gender, Oppression, and Freedom
24.01: Classics of Western Philosophy Beauvoir on Gender, Oppression, and Freedom 1. Introduction: Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) Beauvoir was born in Paris and studied philosophy at the Sorbonne. She passed exams for Certificates in History of Philosophy, General Philosophy, Greek, and Logic in 1927, and in 1928, in Ethics, Sociology, and Psychology. She wrote a graduate diplôme (equivalent to an MA thesis) on Leibniz. Her peers included Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Jean-Paul Sartre. In 1929, she took second place in the highly competitive philosophy agrégation exam, barely losing to Jean-Paul Sartre who took first (it was his second attempt at the exam). At 21 years of age, Beauvoir was the youngest student ever to pass the exam. She taught in high school from 1929-1943, and then supported herself on her writings, and co-editorship of Le Temps Modernes. She is known for her literary writing, and her philosophical work in existentialism, ethics, and feminism. She published The Second Sex in 1949. 2. Gender ‘One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. No biological, psychological or economic fate determines the future that the human female presents in society.’ (II.iv.1) A. What is a woman? “Tota mulier in utero: she is a womb,” some say. Yet speaking of certain women, the experts proclaim, “They are not women,” even though they have a uterus like the others. Everyone agrees there are females in the human species; today, as in the past, they make up about half of humanity; and yet we are told that “femininity is in jeopardy”; we are urged, “Be women, stay women, become women.” So not every female human being is necessarily a woman… (23) So there seems to be a sort of contradiction in our ordinary understanding of women: not every female is a woman, otherwise they would not be exhorted to be women. -
Heidegger, Being and Time
Heidegger's Being and Time 1 Karsten Harries Heidegger's Being and Time Seminar Notes Spring Semester 2014 Yale University Heidegger's Being and Time 2 Copyright Karsten Harries [email protected] Heidegger's Being and Time 3 Contents 1. Introduction 4 2. Ontology and Fundamental Ontology 16 3. Methodological Considerations 30 4. Being-in-the-World 43 5. The World 55 6. Who am I? 69 7. Understanding, Interpretation, Language 82 8. Care and Truth 96 9. The Entirety of Dasein 113 10. Conscience, Guilt, Resolve 128 11. Time and Subjectivity 145 12. History and the Hero 158 13. Conclusion 169 Heidegger's Being and Time 4 1. Introduction 1 In this seminar I shall be concerned with Heidegger's Being and Time. I shall refer to other works by Heidegger, but the discussion will center on Being and Time. In reading the book, some of you, especially those with a reading knowledge of German, may find the lectures of the twenties helpful, which have appeared now as volumes of the Gesamtausgabe. Many of these have by now been translated. I am thinking especially of GA 17 Einführung in die phänomenologische Forschung (1923/24); Introduction to Phenomenological Research, trans. Daniel O. Dahlstrom (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2005) GA 20 Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Zeitbegriffs (1925); History of the Concept of Time, trans. Theodore Kisiel (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1985) GA 21 Logik. Die Frage nach der Wahrheit (1925/26). Logic: The Question of Truth, trans. Thomas Sheehan GA 24 Die Grundprobleme der Phänomenologie (1927); The Basic Problems of Phenomenology, trans. -
Gadamer's Ambivalence Toward the Enlightenment Project
University of Tabriz Journal of Philosophical Investigations Volume 6, No. 11 Autumn & Winter 2012 Gadamer’s Ambivalence toward the Enlightenment Project − Robert J. Dostal −− Rufus M. Jones Professor of Philosophy, Bryn Mawr College Abstract This essay explores Gadamer’s ambivalent relationship with modernity. Gadamer is a prominent critic of the Enlightenment project. His criticisms are both theoretical and practical. Theoretically, representationalism is at the center of modern epistemology for Gadamer. Practically, Gadamer sees the demotion of prudence ( phronesis ) as fundamental to the “bad” Enlightenment. Gadamer’s attempt to revive an appreciation of rhetoric is a way to the join the theoretical and practical dimensions of speech and life. The central representative philosopher of the Enlightenment for Gadamer is Kant. The antithetical thinker is Aristotle. Gadamer would have his Kant and his Aristotle too. The tension between these is at the heart of Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics. Keywords: Gadamer, Enlightenment, Modernity, Philosophical Herme- neutics, Understanding, Language . − ﺗﺎرﻳﺦ وﺻﻮل: 20/7/ 1391 ، ﺗﺄﻳﻴﺪ ﻧﻬﺎﻳﻲ: 9/28/ 1391 University of Tabriz Journal of Philosophical Investigations 54 I. Introduction: Gadamer and Modernity’s Break with the Past Characteristic of much of the philosophical discourse of the 19 th and 20 th century is the rhetoric of a radical break with previous thought. This “break” is often expressed as a break with metaphysics or a break with modernity or a break with the Enlightenment. Prominent voices include, in the 19th century, Comte, Marx and Nietzsche, and in the 20 th century Husserl, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Horkheimer and Adorno. More recent is the phenomena of postmodernism, which very label announces the break with modern thought. -
Beyond Westphalia: Rethinking Fundamental Ontology in IR Written by Andreas Aagaard Nohr
Beyond Westphalia: Rethinking Fundamental Ontology in IR Written by Andreas Aagaard Nohr This PDF is auto-generated for reference only. As such, it may contain some conversion errors and/or missing information. For all formal use please refer to the official version on the website, as linked below. Beyond Westphalia: Rethinking Fundamental Ontology in IR https://www.e-ir.info/2012/07/05/beyond-westphalia-rethinking-fundamental-ontology-in-ir/ ANDREAS AAGAARD NOHR, JUL 5 2012 ‘Our task is to broaden our reasoning to make it capable of grasping what, in ourselves and others, precedes and exceeds reason’ – Maurice Merleau-Ponty[1] The Western philosophical tradition has been entrenched in a particular understanding of human beings by Plato’s love for theory. Theory, the notion that the universe can be understood in a detached and abstract way, by finding the principles that underlie the abundance of phenomena was surely powerful. And in effect, Plato held that we could have a theory of everything, even human beings and their relation to the world.[2] Man had to crawl out of the cave, where his existence had been meek shadow imagery. To be sure, this means that Plato had an implicit theory of how human beings relate to things. As such, the tradition has been build on the basic understanding of human beings as subjects contemplating, or relating to, objects. Man is a cogito, a thinking subject – a rational animal – in a world of objects. The consequence of this assumption is a categorical split between the mind and the world. So much becomes clear in the philosophy of René Descartes, who tried to doubt everything until there was only one thing he could not doubt: his own existence. -
Philosophy Alumni Newsletter, Fall 2011
University PhilosophyPhilosophy DepartmentDepartment University Alumni Newsletter of Dallas Alumni Newsletter IssueIssue 11 Fall,Fall, 20112011 Dear Alumni and Alumnae, Inside this issue: You are holding in your hands (or reading on your screen) the first issue of a newslet- ter that, henceforth, the Philosophy Department of the University of Dallas intends to The 2011 Aquinas 2 publish once every semester. The purpose of the newsletter is to extend the reach of Lecture our Department at least a little bit outside the proverbial “ivory tower.” Academics— including, of course, philosophy professors—are often in dialogue only with each A Royal Visit at UD 2 other (in conferences, publications, and so forth) and with their students. Once the students leave, the interaction ends, and this happens although both sides might well profit from and enjoy a continuing exchange. An Interview with 3 Robert P. George Thus, we plan to keep you “in the loop” through this newsletter. It will update you on developments in our undergraduate and graduate programs, share the names of our The Graduating Class 4 recent graduates, inform you of their plans and current activities, feature stories of 2011 about visiting speakers who have come to UD, and occasionally let you know of our own work. News from the 4 In turn, we would like to know what our majors have done with their degrees. Some Graduate Program have gone on to study philosophy in grad school, but many others have chosen differ- ent paths. How has your philosophy education at UD impacted your life and profes- Notable Publications 5 sional career? Has reading Aristotle, Aquinas & Co.