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STITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana DOCUMENT RESUME ED 342 000 CS 213 179 AUTHOR Crusius, Timothy W. TITLE A Teacher's Introduction to Philosophical Hermeneutics. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, REPORT NO ISBN-0-8141-5016-0; ISSN-1059-0331 PUB DATE 91 NOTE 117p.; NCTE Teacher's Introduction Series. AVAILABLE FROMNational Council of Teachers of English, 1111 Kenyon Rd., Urbana, IL 61801 (Stock No. 50160-0015; $7.95 members, $10.50 nonmembers). PUB TYPE Guides - Non-Classroom Use (055) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC05 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Critical Theory; *Hermeneutics; Higher Education; Interpretive Skills; Rhetorical Theory; Secondary Education; Theory Practice Relationship; *Writing (Composition); Writing Instruction IDENTIFIERS Public Discourse ABSTRACT In language which can be understood by ordinary people with college backgrounds, this book introduces philosophical hermeneutics (the interpretive theory of the humanities) to English teachers, with their role in writing instruction especially in mind. The book contrasts philosophical hermeneutics with other theories of interpretation and summarizes the chief ideas of Martin Heidegger, Paul Ricoeur, and Hans-Georg Gadamer. After setting forth the basic propositions of a hermeneutical rhetoric, the book presents a theory of the rhetoric, contrasting it with works of James Berlin and James Kinneavy, and outlines a hermeneutics-based approach to teaching that helps students find their own authentic voice by interpreting their world in talk and writing. A list of suggested readings, a glossary, and 57 references are attached. (RS) st,%********************************************************************* Reproductions supplied by LDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *****************************************I%***************************** 'T"; THIS "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE U S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION MATERIAL 14AS BEENGRANTED SY ()Hereof Educational Reaeaten and improwmenf t:Cf EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE S INE ORMAT ION CE Nil R it RIC) eirns do( ument nas been terunduc ed as rpc ened horn tbe person of ruganaabon vnabno .1 f NImor c 'lamps havP been made 10 ,mgouve terooducton qualify _ Vomts cii va,* (If ormuns staled in !his do( u ment do not nOrpssatay revtesen1 Oh( al OEM Posbon ci phy College Section Committee Tilly Warnock, Chair University of Wyoming Lil Brannon SUNY at Albany Doris 0. Ginn, CCCC Representative Jackson State University Brenda M. Greene Medgar Evers College, CUNY Linda H. Peterson Yale University James F. Slevin Georgetown University Joseph F. Trimmer Ball State University Art Young Clemson University James Raymond, ex officio University of Alabama H. Thomas McCracken, CEERepresentative Youngstown State University Janet Emig, Executive CommitteeLiaison R.itgers University 3 A Teacher's Introduction to Philosophical Hermeneutics Timothy W. Crusius Southern Methodist University NCTE Teacher's Introduction Series National Council of Teachers of English 1111 Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801 To my father and mother, Milton and Lois Crusius NCTE Editorial Board. Richard Abrahamson,Celia Genbhi, Joyce Kinkead, Richard Lloyd-Jones, Gladys V. Veidemanis,Charles Suhor, chair,ex officio, Michael Spooner,a officio Staff Editor: Sheila Ryan Interior Design: Tom Kovacs for TGK Design Cover Design: Joe lien D. Bryant NCTE Stock Number 50160-3050 0 1991 by the National Council of Teachersof English. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. It is the policy of NCTE in its journals andother publications to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerningthe content and the teach- ing of English and the language arts. Publicityaccorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by theExecutive Committee, the Board of Directors, or the membership at large, exceptin announcements of policy, where -uch endorsement is clearly specified. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationData Crusius, Timothy W., 1950- . A teacher's introduction to philosophicalhermeneutics / Timothy W. Crusius. p. cm. (NCTE teacher's introduction series, ISSN 1059-0331) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8141-5016-0 1. Hermeneutics.2. Rhetoric--Philosophy.I. Title. 11. Series. BD241.C761991 121'.68'0248dc20 91-34817 C1P ;) Contents Foreword vii Preface ix Introduction xi I. Philosophical Hermeneutics: Its Place and "Places" 1 I. A Typology; Hermeneutics and Rhetoric 3 Five Interpretations of Interpretation 3 The Priority of Philosophical Hermeneutics 6 Hermeneutics and Rhetoric: Relationships 8 2. Topoi I: Homelessness and Being 11 Homelessness 12 The Priority of Being 15 Being as Event 17 3. Topoi II: Dasein and Dialogue 21 Dasein and Authenticity 22 Thrown-Projection 23 Finitude 25 Preunderstanding and the Circle 26 Truth as Disclosure 30 Horizon and Preiudice 33 Dialogue, Dialectic, and the Fusion of Horizons 35 The Experienced Person and Practical Judgment 41 4. Why Philosophical Hermeneutics? 45 II. Philosophical Hermeneutics and Composition 51 5. Hermeneutical Rhetoric: The Basic Propositions 53 6. Assimilating Philosophical Hermeneutics: Theory 59 In Sum, Thus Far 59 Contents vi Berlin and Kinneavy 60 Social-Epistemic Rhetoric 61 63 Convergences 66 Divergences 74 7. Assimilating PhilosophicalHermeneutics: Pedagogy 74 A Definition What Is This Thing CalledProcess? 77 Retrieving Dialectic asHermeneutical Inquiry 82 The Rhetoric of Public Discourse 86 87 Why "Good Reasons"? "There is violence in learning." 91 93 Suggested Readings 95 Glossary 97 Works Cited 101 ink). 105 Autlwr 7 111 Foreword A Teacher's Introduction to Philosophical Hermeneutics is the second in what we hope will be a continuing series of books that are especially useful to teachers of English and language arts at all levels. Ours is a wide- ranging discipline, and important scholarly developments in various aspects of our field can be highly complex, not to mention voluminous. We often wish we had the time to take courses or do extended personal reading in topics such as deconstruction, psycholinguistics, rhetorical theory, and the like. Realistically, each of us can read intensively and extensively only in those areas that are of special interest to us or that are most closely related to our work. The Teacher's Introduction Series, then, is geared toward the intellectually curious teacher who would like to get an initial, ludd glance into rich areas of scholarship in our discipline. Let me stress three things that are not intended in A Teacher's Intl Jduction to Philosophical Hermeneutics and in future books that will apptar in this series. First, the books are in no way shortcuts to in- depth knowledge of any field. Rather, these straightforward treat- ments are intended to provide introductions to major ideas in the field and to whet the appetite for further reading. Second, the books do not aim to "dumb down" complicated ideas, sanitizing them for an imagined "average reader." Many of the ideas are quite challenging, and we don't seek to patronize the reader by watering them down. Third, we don't want to send the message that every subject which is important to English and language arts teachers should be taught directly in the classroom. The personal enrichment of the teacher is paramount here. A great deal of misery might have been avoided in the 1960s if teachers had been doubly urged to learn about grammars new and oldthat's part of being a well-rounded teacherbut to avoid bringing their new insights, tree diagrams and all, directly into the classroom. We are grateful to Timothy Crusius for taking on the formidable work of writing so lucidly about the complexities of philosophical hermeneutics. We welcome your comments on the Teacher's Introduc- tion concept. Charles Suhor Deputy Executive Director, NCTE vii Preface Itis appropriate that a treatment of philosophical hermeneutics should follow Sharon Crowley's essay (1989) on deconstruction in NCTE's Teacher's Introduction Series. As a resolve "to read philo- sophers in a certain way" (Derrida 1989, 967, his emphasis), deconstruc- tion is one way of interpreting texts and, therefore, in the most inclusive sense, a hermeneutic. And Derrida's work draws significant- ly from Martin Heidegger, the founder of phiiosophical hermeneutics. The various intellectual struggles going on now within philosophy, theology, the social sciences, history, literary criticism, and rhetoric (among other fields) are in large measure a struggle over interpretation itself, what it should be and do. The major question is: How shall we receiveunderstand and evaluateour own cultural heritage? Shall we greet it with Nietzsche's "art of distrust," what Paul Ricoeur has called the "hermeneutics of suspicion" (1981, 63-64)? If so, hermeneutics becomes unmasking, primarily the dispelling of illu- sions and error, as not only in Nietzsche but also in Marx and Freud. Or shall we greet it in the spirit of the "hermeneutics of tradition" (1981, 64), seeing in history the sources of our own possibilities, of insights that no contemporary enlightenment can eclipse? In his dismantlings of Western metaph ysics, Derrida clearly belongs to the hermeneutics of suspicion; the theorist of chief concern here, Hans-Georg Gadamer, belongs to the hermeneutics of tradition. As Ricoeur argues, the two hermeneutics are complementary rather than dichotomous (1981, 332). And yet, if we can speak of choice in matters governed so much by temperament, experience, and faith, choosing to emphasize one over the other is hardly a matter of indifference.
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