Gadamer.doc (original) (raw)
Related papers
Listening to language in Gadamer's hermeneutics
2012
Subscribing to Hans-Georg Gadamer's belief that human beings are called to be insightful and discerning, this dissertation explores Gadamer's idea and practice of listening to language in order to understand the relationship between a constitutive theory of language and a life of wisdom. As Gadamer's texts reveal, the hermeneutic practice of listening to language is a reflective engagement of language that is theoretically grounded in a constitutive view of language. First, we need to listen to language because language, not consciousness, is the critical element in understanding. Second, the ontological priority of language over subjectivity comes with the nature of our primary relationship to language-we belong to it. Language is the medium in which we think and live, which makes us human. This means that our primary and most consequential relationship to language is as hearers, not users, of language. Third, the nature of language is both binding and expansive; hence the problems that come with its binding nature can be v attended to from within language itself, by engaging its expansive nature. In other words, Gadamer does not believe in linguistic determinism. The first chapter explores the conversation between Gadamer and communication studies by surveying what communication scholars have found significant for communication theory and practice in Gadamer's thought. The next three chapters examine Gadamer's idea and practice of listening to language through a close interpretive reading of Gadamer's texts. This reading reveals three key relationships that define the hermeneutic practice of listening to language: the relationship between ordinary language and conceptual thought (chapter two); the relationship between hearing and understanding (chapter three); and the relationship between language and reason (chapter four). The last chapter takes the conversation between Gadamer and communication studies further by considering some ways in which the hermeneutic practice of listening to language can assist communication scholars and practitioners in becoming discerning and insightful.
Listening to Language in Gadamer\u27s Hermeneutics
2012
Subscribing to Hans-Georg Gadamer\u27s belief that human beings are called to be insightful and discerning, this dissertation explores Gadamer\u27s idea and practice of listening to language in order to understand the relationship between a constitutive theory of language and a life of wisdom. As Gadamer\u27s texts reveal, the hermeneutic practice of listening to language is a reflective engagement of language that is theoretically grounded in a constitutive view of language. First, we need to listen to language because language, not consciousness, is the critical element in understanding. Second, the ontological priority of language over subjectivity comes with the nature of our primary relationship to language--we belong to it. Language is the medium in which we think and live, which makes us human. This means that our primary and most consequential relationship to language is as hearers, not users, of language. Third, the nature of language is both binding and expansive; hence th...
Art of Interpretation and understanding
2012
Hermeneutics as the art of interpreting and understanding text, speech and human action is central to Gadamer’s hermeneutic philosophy. Drawing extensively on Gadamer’s writings on hermeneutics, this essay is an assessment of the centrality of ‘language’ and ‘understanding’ in his philosophy. Taking the very work of Gadamer on hermeneutics as an interpretation of Continental Philosophy, metaphorcity of language and historicity of understanding are the key elements in interpreting meaning in a text as well as a social action. Gadamer contributed to hermeneutics by first, providing an ontological shift, from interpretation of text to the interpretation of social action; second, replacing the ‘hermeneutical circle’ with the ‘hermeneutical dialectic’; and lastly, by treating hermeneutics as a science and therefore, giving his work on ‘hermeneutic philosophy’ a universal characteristic.
Gadamer's hermeneutics and its relevance to biblical interpretation
According to Gadamer, the task of hermeneutics is to clarify the miracle of understanding that happens when an interpreter engages a text. The path to this clarity is the hermeneutical circle through which the interpreter determines the meaning through dialogue of the text. It is a method of relating a work's parts to the work as a whole: since the parts cannot be understood without some preliminary understanding of the whole, and the whole cannot be understood without comprehending its parts, our understanding of a work must involve an anticipation of the whole that informs our view of the parts while simultaneously being modified by them. The interpreter approaches a text with a certain set of prejudice or pre-understanding. Gadamer identifies two significant prejudices that must be overcome if understanding is to occur: prejudice against tradition and prejudice that defies reason. He argues against radical rationalism, which maintains that an objective, correct interpretation of texts can only be achieved by submitting them to the authority of the intellect or reason which protects the interpreter from his own prejudice. In order to attain understanding one has the crucial task of understanding one's prejudice, one's " historical consciousness, ". Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics is vitally important and should be utilized by the biblical interpreter in order to limit the possibility for erroneous interpretation and application.
The Idea of Dialogue in Gadamer ’ s Hermeneutics
2014
The idea of dialogue occupies arguably the most central position in Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics (Gadamer 1960/1989). Dialogue is here not understood merely as the conversation between two subjects about something of common interest in a shared medium of understanding, but rather as the foundational phenomenon within which objects and themes, subjects and perspectives, and common interest and shared understanding are grounded. The foundational character of dialogue derives from the fact that all experience is understood to be linguistically mediated, while language as a medium exists in its true and essential form as dialogue. The strongest support for this approach comes from a phenomenological perspective on understanding, i.e. on what really happens when we understand something, when we make sense of something by interpreting it. Bringing together the encompassing and foundational role of dialogue with its concrete origin in the act of interpretation will yield...
Hermeneutics is derived from the Greek word ερµηνευειν (hermeneuein), meaning to interpret, and its derivative ερµηνεια (hermeneia) meaning interpretation.