Gadamer's Hermeneutics Research Articles

Research with a Purpose: A Reply to My Critics

I would like to thank Brendan Hogan and the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy for organising a session around my book at the annual meeting of the American Philosophical Association (Pacific Division) in San Francisco in 2007. The articles in this symposium are revisions of the contributions to that session. My book fits the agenda of the society in that it 'advances' a position which is at least partly indebted to American pragmatism. It is also, to a lesser extent, indebted to Gadamer's hermeneutics, but the influence of neo-pragmatism looms large. This does not mean, however, that my position is compatible with classical pragmatism, and indeed some of the contributors to this symposium claim, rightly I think, that my position is in some respects at odds with that of Dewey's. Before I deal with the various criticisms, it might be appropriate to put my pragmatist-inspired proposal in the context of my own intellectual trajectory in order to make sense of the rationale of the proposal and explain its distinctiveness. Unlike a substantial number of philosophers of social science, I was trained not just in philosophy but also in a social science, have actually carried out social research, am based in a sociology department and teach in an interdisciplinary social and political sciencepr programme. This has given my work in the philosophy of social science quite a distinctive angle in comparison to the armchair philosophy of social science that is prevalent these days. Whereas the content of philosophy of social science used to be tied to the emergence and establishment of new social scientific disciplines like sociology (Baert and Dominguez Rubio 2009), it has in the course of the twentieth century become an increasingly autonomous intellectual enterprise. I have been particularly struck by how generations of philosophers of social science

Intercultural Hermeneutics and the Cross-cultural Subject

The paper critically engages with contemporary theories of cross-cultural understanding and cross-cultural subjectivity found in the areas of intercultural hermeneutics, intercultural social theory and the discourse on the stranger. Drawing on Gadamerian hermeneutics the paper takes some preliminary steps in formulating an alternative conception of the in-between subject and cross-cultural interpretation that incorporates the ambivalence of boundaries, the enabling dimension of essentialism and acknowledges the role that fore-meanings and fore-structures have on cross-cultural understanding. In contrast to existing theories I conclude that the cross-cultural subject is situated within the intercultural encounter rather than dwelling above it.

Men's experience of their life situation when diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer

Aim The aim was to improve the knowledge and understanding of how newly diagnosed advanced prostate cancer affects the men and their life situation and perhaps causes fatigue before the side effects of any treatment has an impact on them. Method The qualitative study where ten men, newly diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and at an early stage in their treatment, were interviewed. The interviews were analysed by using Gadamer's hermeneutics. Results The men in the present study did not experience fatigue specifically because they had been diagnosed for advanced prostate cancer. Three topics were identified during the analysis and interpretations: awareness of mortality, the influence on their emotions and the influence on their normal life. These topics offered a structure presenting the essence; the need to get back to as normal a life as possible, albeit with a new perspective. The topics together confirmed an affected life situation, which in turn helped the participants to form a new perspective on life. Conclusion The knowledge and understanding of the study is that advanced prostate cancer affects men's lives: they are placed in a new life situation, against their will, and in their new situation they form a new life perspective. Healthcare professionals need to evaluate, perceive and furthermore understand the men's apprehensions and expectations, on an individual basis, for their future and empower them to formulate a new life perspective.

THE “CLAWS OF ABSOLUTE NECESSITY”: DELEUZE ON CULTURE

In this day and age of Žižekian rock star theorists and overly-abstruse philosophers, the institutional study of cultural theory can be understood as firmly entrenched in two camps. The first, pandering to the leftovers of the MTV generation and readers of Totem Books’ Introducing series, are engaged in what can be called a type of theoretical bricolage; why shouldn’t one be able to reference Lacan’s borromean knot in a discussion of early nineties Norwegian blackmetal or 4G cellular wireless technology (from a Marxist perspective, of course)? The other camp, which often adheres to a strict nomenclature so esoteric that only those at the graduate level can penetrate their meaning, enjoys a certain performativity of the text; the form of their work, unlike the relatively straightforward and at times journalistic style of the former group,attempts to structurally mimic the logic of their thought. It could be called a type of philosophical, meta-textual performance art. This group would argue that essays have anaesthetic autonomy (see Theodor Adorno’s “The Essay as Form”). Each camp exists on one side of an invisible line that can be called the continental/analytic divide, and if we push this sensible difference further we can justifiably say that, in the last analysis, the difference is one of“positive” and “negative” thought; between a positivist logic founded on the necessity of presuppositions (the logic of word games, game theory, etc.) and a thought that is intrinsic,parasitic even, to thought itself (deconstruction, Gadamerian hermeneutics, etc.). One group envisions a need for answers while the other seeks to identify problems. This difference has been and might always be one of contentious debate, and it is certainly the locus of one of the chief frustrations permeating the theoretical realm of this ephemeral thing we call “Cultural Studies”.

Paul Ricoeur’s Hermeneutics as a Model for Environmental Philosophy

Those acquainted with the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, whether they are Ricoeur enthusiasts or just polite readers, will readily acknowledge the remarkable scope of his thought. True as this may be, Ricoeur never directed his powers of philosophical reflection toward the natural environment. The reasons for this are easy enough understand. Environmental philosophy as a distinct branch of philosophy has scarcely appeared on the scene for more than a generation. ' Over that period of time Ricoeur was obviously busy with otiier questions that ran through his thought nearly all of his Ufe. Who knows, had Ricoeur miraculously overcome the strictures of mortaUty for another forty or fifty years, he may very well have had something say philosophically about the environment. That is all, of course, speculative. Nonetheless, philosophy is a logical place for an expanding hermeneutics2 turn. If the claim of the universality of that aU experience is methated through language3 is so, then experience also calls for hermeneutics. Language is related the ontological condition of beingin-the-world and we bring experience language;4 thus we can infer that the encounter with environments - natural, cultural and so on - is Ukewise expressed (or understood) in language, making them a meaningful locus of interpretation. What I propose in this essay is that Paul Ricoeur's provides a model for various forms of discourse and, in particular, the growing field of philosophy. I am not so ambitious claim do so in any comprehensive manner here. The vast scope of Ricoeur's work alone is prohibitive of any such attempt in a single essay. What I will do is provide some examples illustrate me claim that Ricoeur's work can be employed in me service of philosophy. And while this specific application of his work does not seem have been in Ricoeur's mind, I will rely on one of Ricoeur's fundamental hermeneutical principles of the distanciation of the writer and the reader by the text. Namely, interpretation is not ultimately about deciphering the intentions of the author; to interpret is explicate the type of being-in-die-world unfolded in front of the text.5 The importance of Ricoeur's philosophy for philosophy I will take be one such possibility that may unfold in front of his work. With that in mind, I will first give a brief description of philosophy. Then I will consider in relation philosophy Ricoeur's hermeneutics of the self, his treatment of distanciation and belonging in terms of Gadamer's hermeneutics, and finally the possible role of a critical in discourse. From Environmental Philosophy Environmental Hermeneutics Environmental philosophy, I think, is still trying find its feet. It has its origin in the growing awareness of me consequences of devastation. The concern for the effects of human activity on the environment led some philosophers ask what philosophy might contribute the discussion.6 Environmental philosophy, then, was really an ethics first. And in the mind of some, philosophy isn't philosophy at all but at best perhaps an appUed philosophical ethics. Philosophical reflection on the environment, however, did not remain merely in the realm of ethics but has expanded include environmental aesthetics, ontology, theology, the philosophy of science, political philosophy, philosophy of technology, ecofeminism, and other areas.7 Phenomenologists who have turned toward questions have begun speak of eco-phenomenology and going back the earth itself as a way of giving phenomenological descriptions of experience.8 If all of this, why not, then, an eco-hermeneutics? Going further still, I would speak more broadly of an that includes not only ecology or nature, but built environments, social and cultural environments, and any sort of environs of which we may speak. …

Hermeneutics and inter-cultural dialog: linking theory and practice

Inter-cultural dialog is frequently treated as either unnecessary or else impossible. It is said to be unnecessary, because we all are the same or share the same ‘human nature’; it is claimed to be impossible because cultures seen as language games or forms or life are so different as to be radically incommensurable. The paper steers a course between absolute universalism and particularism by following the path of dialog and interrogation—where dialog does not mean empty chatter but the exploration of the ‘otherness’ of interlocutors on the far side of either assimilation or exclusion. Such dialog is the heart of hermeneutics as formulated by Hans-Georg Gadamer. The paper explores the question whether hermeneutical interpretation can be transferred from textual readings to the domain of cross-cultural encounters. After discussing both the historical development and the basic meaning of contemporary hermeneutics, the paper draws attention to the intimate linkage between interpretive understanding and ‘application’, or ‘practical philosophy.’ Drawing on the insights of Gadamer and some more overtly political thinkers, the paper then shows the relevance of hermeneutics for cross-cultural studies, as an antidote to the looming ‘clash of civilizations.’ It turns to some writings by Maurice Merleau-Ponty in order to emphasize the necessary linkage between interactive dialog and concrete embodied engagement. Undercutting purely mentalist or ‘idealist’ misconstruals of dialog, this linkage shows the mutual compatibility between Gadamerian hermeneutics and existential phenomenology.

The Breast-feeding Conversation

Nurses play a vital role in mothers' early experiences with breast-feeding. Literature enumerates both supportive and nonsupportive behaviors, as well as the "interpersonal" aspect of breast-feeding support, although little direction is given to nurses about how to facilitate the relationship. This article conceptualizes breast-feeding support within Gadamerian hermeneutics as a conversation among nurses, mothers, and their newborns. Hermeneutically, breast-feeding conversation encompasses a text (a particular feeding at the breast), conversational partners (a mother, her newborn, and a nurse), and a dialogue that facilitates effective breast-feeding and maternal breast-feeding confidence through interpretation or understanding of the text. History and language are essential as a partnership is formed.

Practical Reasonableness, Theory, and the Science of Self-Understanding

The practical nature of all human understanding lies at the heart of Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, yet the stress he places on practicality and his appeal to Aristotle remain relatively neglected by the secondary literature. This neglect is due in part to a failure to see the great extent to which Gadamer relies on the Aristotelian concept of phronēsis (practical wisdom) and, to a lesser extent, on the Hegelian concept of the concrete universal. The purpose of this paper is to show how the proper understanding of Aristotle's notions of practical wisdom and theoretical knowing, both of which are crucial to an appreciation of Gadamer's description of human understanding as Spiel (“game” or “play”), will help to reverse two of the recurring mischaracterizations of philosophical hermeneutics: first, that it is ultimately anti-science (against method and theory) and second, that critical reason or rationality plays only a minor role within it.

The Tune of Confirmation in Guiding Nurse Students

The purpose of the article is to provide a deeper understanding of the guidance of nursing students from a caring science perspective. The methodological approach is Gadamerian (2004) hermeneutics. Interviews are used in sampling and analyzing data (Kvale, 1996). The main findings were confirmation, reflection, and authority. This article focuses on the phenomenon of confirmation only. The main aspects of confirmation are that it includes genuine interest and care, makes nursing students feel secure and is a key to development, strengthens the relationship in a group and between individuals, and is a good base for reflection.

The Guided Hike in Banff National Park: A Hermeneutical Performance

Sharpley identifies the need to help the public adopt a new paradigm of sustainable development through learning and understanding. The example of a guided hike in Banff National Park, Canada, that communicates to visitors ideas about sustainable development – and sustainable tourism – is examined in this paper to gain some sense of the world of the hike. The paper is based on a hermeneutical theatrical model derived from the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer, which includes play, festival, mimesis, gaze and beauty. Through the use of the model, the paper examines the present day performance of the hike, including the narratives of hikers and those involved in presenting the hike. The examination also includes relevant legislation, history and the setting. The result explores the nature and process of understanding a sustainable development paradigm on a guided hike in a natural protected area.

Gadamerian Hermeneutics and Irony: Between Strauss and Derrida

AbstractAgainst the background of Gadamer's hermeneutics of trust, for which the primary concern of the hermeneutical enterprise is the matter under discussion, the Sache, this essay raises the question of Gadamer's treatment of irony. Gadamer and Gadamerians have criticized the hermeneutics of suspicion—a hermeneutics that always looks under the surface of what is said to see what is hidden. This would seem to make irony a problematic aspect of texts and discourse for a Gadamerian hermeneutics. Nowhere in Gadamer's corpus can we find an extensive discussion of irony, but Gadamer does raise the question of irony in a provocative way in several important junctures. This essay contrasts Gadamer's treatment of irony to that of Leo Strauss and Jacques Derrida. It explores why for Gadamer irony does not call for a hermeneutics of suspicion.

Philosophy, understanding and the consultation: a fusion of horizons

Early models of the consultation were ‘disease’ centred with little consideration of the patients perspective. Later models advised we should gain the ‘patients understanding’ or better ‘shared understanding’ as used by Pendleton, Schofield, Tate, and Havelock.1 The profession is now developing the idea of patient-centred medicine; it is gaining popularity but still practised infrequently even when looked for in the MRCGP video examination.2 For the consultation process to be successful the patient needs to feel heard and understood. Philosophical thought can offer ideas to describe this task of understanding. The works of the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002) explain that ‘the modern concepts of science are not adequate to understand people and our experience of art and even communication’.3 He developed a philosophical perspective in his work ‘Truth and Method’ and explained a process of philosophical hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is a process which helps interpretation and understanding things from someone else's perspective. It can be applied to situations where we encounter meanings that are not easily understood but require some effort to interpret. He originally applied this to an interpreter and a religious text but in a later essay he describes ‘its (hermeneutics) fundamental significance for our entire understanding of the world and thus for all the various forms in which this understanding manifests itself: from inter-human communication to manipulation of society’.4 A recent example of applying this hermeneutic process to human processes was to understand ‘hope’ in a teenage population, which on first hearing sounds an impossible task. Gadamer's hermeneutics provides insight into this very human process and an interesting research method.5 I would like to suggest that this process could be applied to a consultation between patient and doctor. When applying hermeneutics to the human process of interpretation Gadamer talks of a ‘horizon’ as …

Widening the trauma discourse: the link between childbirth and experiences of abuse

Objective. To explore the lived experience of, and personal meanings attributed to, a traumatic birth.Study design. An interpretive phenomenological approach was adopted for this study based on Heideggerian and Gadamerian hermeneutics. The participants were 14 women who had experienced a self-defined traumatic birth. Data collection was undertaken through in-depth interviews. An interpretive analytical approach was utilised to uncover resonant meanings across the participant's birth narratives.Results. Trauma was not related to mode of birth, but to fractured inter-personal relationships with caregivers. Three interpretive themes emerged from the analysis: ‘being disconnected’, ‘being helpless’ and ‘being isolated’. Synthesis across these themes revealed that, for women in this study, their self-defined traumatic birth was experienced as violent and abusive. Some described their experience as torture, resulting in a profound sense of being disassociated from the childbirth experience, and annihilated from societal regard.Conclusions. Taking a strictly hermeneutic perspective, the findings expose commonalities between some descriptions of traumatic birth, and victim accounts of violent or abusive criminal offences, even in the case of clinically normal birth. The results could provide a powerful influence for reform in maternity care provision.

V Ancient Epigram in Reception

‘Reception’, the study of how the present recognizes and constructs its past, has developed from sober origins (the literary hermeneutics of Gadamer and Jauss) into a hot topic in contemporary classical studies. This rapidly changing ? eld resists stable definition of methodology or subject matter, and elicits firebrand rhetoric. Some practitioners are explicitly confrontational, exposing the historically recent ‘uses and abuses of antiquity’ perpetrated in the service of reactionary ideologies, and critiquing the disciplinary sleights of hand by which classics itself has come into being. Others use reception terminology to repackage Nachleben, the post-classical afterlives of ancient texts, or a broader ‘classical tradition’: the conventional study (blurring at times into optimistic hagiography) of the enduring influence of antiquity in literature and the arts. Recent trends are thoughtfully surveyed in Lorna Hardwick's New Survey, Reception Studies (Hardwick 2003).

Meaning and Interpretation: Can Brandomian Scorekeepers be Gadamerian Hermeneuts?

AbstractIn his book Tales of the Mighty Dead Brandom engages Gadamer's hermeneutic conception of interpretation in order to show that his inferentialist approach to understanding conceptual content can explain and underwrite the main theses of Gadamer's hermeneutics which he calls ‘the gadamerian hermeneutic platitudes’. In order to assess whether this claim is sound, I analyze the three types of philosophical interpretations that Brandom discusses: de re, de dicto, and de traditione, and argue that they commit him to an ‘ecumenical historicism’ that is directly at odds with the hermeneutic approach. Although the variety of de re interpretation that Brandom denominates de traditione comes indeed very close to the Gadamerian approach, I conclude that if Brandomian scorekeepers were to adopt it, they could become Gadamerian hermeneuts, but once they did, they would not be able to go back to their scorekeeping practices as described by Brandom.

A Critical Misunderstanding

This article argues that western academia has largely eschewed dialogical understanding in favour of Marxist-inspired accounts and poststructuralist theorizing of the Muslim world. The over-abundance of the critique of ideology, other forms of `ideological demystification' and anti-essentialist theorizing have resulted in the failure of the human sciences to adequately understand the emergence of contemporary Islamic and Islamist fervour and its relationship to modernity. In contrast to much, but not all, of the literature on Islam and modernity, the article develops a reconstructed dialogical theory, which draws upon both Gadamerian hermeneutics and interreligious dialogue, as a means to take more seriously the truth-claims of the Islamic Other. By drawing upon notions of `suspicion' and `silence' from interreligious dialogue, a reconstructed dialogical model can overcome the absence of critique, a charge often levelled against hermeneutic dialogue, without resorting to the Enlightenment mode of critique. Although a reconstructed dialogical framework is not without its own problems, for instance how to overcome the gap between a foundationalist Islamic worldview and an increasingly post-foundationalist secular one, it provides a better prospect for understanding the Other.

Suprapubic Catheters—A Shared Understanding, From the Other Side Looking In

The objective of this study was to explore the experiences of people living with a suprapubic catheter. This descriptive study was guided by the philosophy of Gadamerian hermeneutics. Data were gathered via indepth interviews with 6 adults living in the community who had a suprapubic catheter for long-term urinary bladder drainage. Interpretation of the data occurred via thematic analysis of the participants' stories. Two distinct but interrelated themes emerged. Participants shifted, over time, from negative to positive experiences (psychologically, physically, and practically) to adjustment to life with a catheter. Participants also related that health professionals had not adequately prepared or supported them as they learned to live with a suprapubic catheter. Many of the participants' initial negative experiences were augmented by this deficiency. Issues revolved around perceptions of being psychologically unprepared, the changed body image, altered sexuality, and support needs. The findings of this study revealed that the insertion of a suprapubic catheter brought about significant life changes for the participants. The data highlighted disparities between the needs of people who have a supra-pubic catheter and health professionals' perceptions of their needs.

Special section: Lorenzo Simpson' s The Unfinished Project: Sensibilities in conflict

In the remarks that follow I concentrate on Lorenzo Simpson's two books, Technology, Time and the Conversations of Modernity (cited as TTC) and The Unfinished Project: Toward a Postmetaphysical Humanism (cited as UP). Common to both works — what unites them, I believe — is a philosophical orientation that has been deeply influenced by Gadamerian hermeneutics. I begin with a discussion of UP.

Clinical Wisdom Among Proficient Nurses

This article examines clinical wisdom, which has emerged from a broader study about nurse managers' influence on proficient registered nurse turnover and retention. The purpose of the study was to increase understanding of proficient nurses' experience and clinical practice by giving voice to the nurses themselves, and to look for differences in their practice. This was a qualitative study based on semistructured interviews followed by analysis founded on Gadamerian hermeneutics. The article describes how proficient nurses experience their practice. Proficient practice constitutes clinical wisdom based on responsibility, thinking and ethical discernment, and a drive for action. The study showed that poor working conditions cause proficient nurses to regress to non-proficient performance. Further studies are recommended to allow deeper searching into the area of working conditions and their relationship to lack of nurse proficiency.

Coping in Isolation

This exploratory study used a critical hermeneutic, which combined Black feminist epistemology and Gadamerian hermeneutics, to understand the experiences of Black middle-class women who relocated to the Pacific Northwest, a predominately White community. Fourteen Black women were interviewed about their experiences living in the Pacific Northwest; specifically, their coping strategies were examined. Although many themes emerged, the interpretive layer of analysis required of a critical hermeneutic methodology offered an understanding of the simultaneous influence of both racism and sexism on their experiences. Findings revealed that the women felt socially and culturally isolated and the need for support networks and positive racial socialization messages was significant. Findings also reinforced the effect of class and the danger of homogenizing Black women's experiences. Participants' recommendations for recruitment and retention are included.