Hermeneutic Tradition Research Articles

Daniel K. L. Chua, Beethoven & Freedom

The association of Beethoven’s music and persona with freedom emerged in his reception in the first half of the nineteenth century, and eventually became a topos that, thanks to the composer’s alleged sympathies and/or affinities with the French revolution, gave the concept a distinctive political meaning. At first sight, Daniel K. L. Chua’s 2017 book Beethoven & Freedom is part of this hermeneutical tradition, which includes music criticism and scholarship. Chua repeatedly invokes contexts w...

Interpreting The Concept Of Politics In Terms Of Prefixation

The article analyzes the revision of the concept of politics caused by the exhaustion of the ideological paradigm. In modern philosophy politics acquires new meanings through prefixing, resulting in the emergence of such concepts as archi-politics, para-politics, ultra-politics, trans-politics, or bio-politics. These new concepts close the philosophical source of politics laid by the Greek tradition. The departure from philosophy as the source of politics is completed with the idea of police, in which prefixing as a way of conceptualizing politics reaches the linguistic limit. However, modern philosophy encompasses a more positive attitude, which is linked to the hermeneutic tradition of philosophizing of Heidegger and Gadamer that focuses on the preservation of thought and language in the source of political existence.

Interpretative phenomenological analysis as hermeneutic philosophy-in-practice

In this brief paper I suggest further scrutiny of the hermeneutic tradition to which interpretative phenomenological analysis is ‘strongly connected’ (Smith, 2004, p.40). This exhibits philosophically how everyday recurring practical understanding – tacit knowing-how in practices – is structured. Dialogue with research participants involves foregrounding emerging practices (e.g. coping with chronic pain) in structured awareness of recurring behaviour surfacing on reflection.

Traduzir a filosofia para além da filosofia:

Nestas linhas, mostro algumas das particularidades da tradução de “Signature événement contexte” para o espanhol. A análise proposta se distancia dos enfoques hermenêuticos (a interpretação e construção do sentido de um texto) e se aproxima da proposta de uma poética da tradução. Numa primeira parte, à guisa de introdução, situo o estudo dos textos filosóficos no horizonte da tradutologia. Na segunda, analiso a tradução desta conferência para o espanhol. Nas conclusões, assinalo as dificuldades de classificação dos textos filosóficos, em particular dos textos de Jacques Derrida e mostro a necessidade de traduzir filosofia para além do sentido conceitual de seus textos. Traduzir a filosofia é diferi-la, construí-la, fazer filosofia.

The Exilic Imperative of American Jewry

This article considers the existence of an exilic imperative in the historical and identity hermeneutics of American Jewry. Author considers cases of (1) American Jewish identification with racial outsiders, including the appropriation of historical, cultural, and religious forms; (2) the persistent creation of American Jewish ethnoburbs, unlike other white ethnic groups; and (3) the creation of exilic fantasy literature by American Jewish novelists. The author suggests that although American conditions do not justify interpretations of Jewish social alienation, American Jews have nevertheless applied traditional Jewish exilic hermeneutics to those American conditions.

The Animal as an Object of Interpretation in Pre-Modern Christian and Jewish Hermeneutic Traditions – an Introduction

Guest editor Astrid Lembke introduces Issue No. 5 of Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures, dedicated to Biblical Creatures: The Animal as an Object of Interpretation in Pre-Modern Christian and Jewish Hermeneutic Traditions, and offers a general overview of the matter and contents of the contributions.

Distinguishing “Chan” and “Quan”——A Discussion of the Publicness of Chanshi

The way written hanyu (language of China‘s Han people; Chinese) forms its characters places a high value on intuition, openness and sharing. “Publicness” is an essential characteristic of chanshi 阐释 and this attests to our argument. The chan 阐 in chanshi 阐释 (free interpretation) and the quan in quanshi 诠释 (exegesis) have profound philosophical and historical sources. The openness and publicness of chan 阐 seek outwardness, explicitness and clarity, holding firmly to the basic claims of dialogue and negotiation, thus containing some brilliant and constructive ideas to the cutting edge of contemporary hermeneutics. Quan 诠 is oriented toward the real, the detailed, the full and the demonstrable, qualities that look to the thing in itself, and it holds firmly to moving from textual research to meaning and significance; it shines forth in the national spirit of seeking truth. There were two approaches to hermeneutics in ancient China: one stressed the quan 诠 of research on ancient texts, the other the chan 阐 of intent. Each has its merits, and the two are compatible. With Chinese discourse as the mainstay, classical hermeneutics as a resource, and contemporary Western hermeneutics as a reference, we can use comparison, selection and the ascertaining of meaning to start from concepts and go on to categories, and then to propositions followed by schemata and thence to systems, finally realizing the modern metamorphosis of the views and theories of traditional hermeneutics, establishing a contemporary Chinese hermeneutics that highlights Chinese concepts, thought and theories.

Always Already Playing: Hermeneutics and the Gamification of Existence

What if play is more than just an attitude or set of behaviors? What if the world is fundamentally and inherently playful? What if, when we find ourselves playing, we are not the authors or agents who initiate the activity, but instead we are giving ourselves over to the play of the world, being-played as it were? In this essay, we consider these questions in reference to the tradition of philosophical hermeneutics, discussing the work of Gadamer and others and tracing out the implications for gamification research.

“Time's Up”: The Experience of Entering Residential Aged Care for Young People with Acquired Neurological Disorders and Their Families

Background and aims: Previous research has highlighted that living in residential aged care (RAC) is associated with a range of negative outcomes for adults with acquired neurological disorders. This study sought to understand the lived experience of entering RAC for young people and their family members and characterise their needs during this process.Method: Data included 64 written and verbal submissions to the 2015 Senate Inquiry into the Adequacy of existing residential care arrangements available for young people with severe physical, mental or intellectual disabilities in Australia. In line with hermeneutic tradition, text was analysed using thematic analysis.Results: Entry to RAC was experienced as a complex process that coalesced around three key events: an unexpected health crisis, a directive that time's up and the individual is required to leave the healthcare setting, with a subsequent decision to move into RAC. This decision was made in the absence of time, knowledge of options or adequate support.Conclusions: Findings suggest that there are both immediate practice changes and longer term policy responses that can support the health and disability systems to uphold the rights of people with acquired disability to choose where and how they will live their lives.

Reading and remembering Saba Mahmood: Islam, ethics, and the hermeneutics of tradition

Saba Mahmood's untimely passing on March 10, 2018 was a tragic loss for family, friends, and colleagues, as well as for cultural anthropologists inspired by her scholarship over the past two decades. Her influence has been no less far-reaching in contemporary Islamic and gender studies, as well as the anthropology of ethics. It is against the backdrop of her legacy that this essay seeks to pay homage to and critically reflect on Mahmood's scholarship. It focuses on and assesses Mahmood's contributions as an anthropologist of Islam, subjectivity, and ethics, paying particular attention to the debates that have emerged in the wake of her scholarship on the ethics of piety, the ambivalent nature of subjectivity, and the meanings of freedom and tradition. The assessment suggests that there is an unresolved tension between Mahmood's experience-near reflections on the ethical care of the pious self, on one hand, and her more sweeping critiques of freedom and the liberal project. The essay concludes with some thoughts on where the anthropology of Islam is moving with regard to ethics, plurality, and the ambivalence of subjectivity.

Toward a Theory of Pedagogical Reduction: Selection, Simplification, and Generalization in an Age of Critical Education

AbstractIn this article, David Lewin examines the processes of educational representation, simplification, and selection, proposing the term “pedagogical reduction” in order to clarify the role these processes play within pedagogy. Although this term is virtually unknown among Anglo‐American educational theorists, it reflects a substantial theoretical basis in the related German concept didaktishe Reduktion. Drawing on sources from the hermeneutic tradition, Lewin argues that education is fundamentally an interpretive exercise because selection and simplification require the interpretive judgment of educators, and that the hermeneutic constraints applied to education entail forms of reduction. He then examines pedagogical reduction within the curriculum areas of history, science, and philosophy in order to illustrate the generative and generalizing nature of pedagogical reduction, which takes students from particulars (objects, exercises, or events) to general or universal principles. Lewin discusses Comenius's 1658 textbook Orbis Sensualium Pictus in order both to illustrate pedagogical reduction as a historical form and to draw attention to a key historical moment in the development of educational representation and reduction. He then turns to an examination of skepticism of pedagogical reduction from progressive and critical pedagogies. The argument culminates in the suggestion that educational theory is too often presented with a false dilemma: either accept the need for a contrived educational experience disconnected from the experiences and concerns of life, or react against this flattened educational aspiration by seeking something authentic and progressive that meaninglessly conflates education and life. Understanding the proper place of reduction in education, Lewin concludes, is vital in mediating this dichotomy.

‘Liquid running communities’ – an analysis of serious runners’ communities

This study targets Serious Runners, who are redefining the term ‘running community’. The main focus is to investigate how the Serious Runners engage with each other within the new running communities and what they experience by belonging to them. Inspiration is drawn from Bauman’s ‘liquid modernity and community’ and abductive reasoning is used within the hermeneutical interpretation tradition and with a theory borne interpretation. In-depth interviews are conducted with runners from traditional and new urban running communities about their experiences of belonging. The results show that liquid modernity’s ‘peg’ communities act as bridges between contradictory desires and particularly between the need for individuality and community. The runners experience a ‘momentary’ community when training with others or joining ‘swarms’ of runners during competitions. Serious Runners challenge the dichotomy of running alone vs. organized running in clubs. The study introduces a model that draws on new forms of liquid ‘peg’ communities and identifies new types of communities referred to as ‘individualized running within communities’ and ‘jointly individualized running communities’. Further research is needed to better understand these new community types and to determine how activities could be organized to encourage their formation in the broader sports arena.

Raphael, the Virgin Mary, and Holy Matrimony: Recontextualizing Franz Liszt's Sposalizio

Sposalizio, the piece opening the “Italian year” of Franz Liszt's Années de pèlerinage (first published in 1858), is one of the most analyzed and interpreted compositions in this piano cycle. Much attention has been paid to its connection with the painting of the same title by Raphael, which was printed as an internal title page for the piece's first edition at the explicit request of the composer. This connection has inspired many studies on the relationship between image and music, reinforcing the notion of Sposalizio as a musical realization of Raphael's painting as seen by Liszt for the first time in February 1838 at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. Adopting a critical view of the hermeneutical tradition, which has an impact on the interpretation of the piece still today, and assuming that its composition began in Weimar only around 1848, the article proposes an alternative reading of the piece. By connecting pictorial and musical elements, Sposalizio seems to evoke several cultural discourses and practices fundamental to Liszt's artistic and biographical background, such as Raphael's image as a genius, the revival of Marian devotion, and marriage as a sacrament of the Catholic Church.

Hermeneutics of Thriller: From William Shakespeare to Dan Brown

The author analyzes some philosophical subtexts of popular culture. As a result, we show the immanent presence of the hermeneutic problematics in the genre of thriller, and define some tendencies in its development. The hermeneutic problematics of a thriller is multilayered, some thrillers have «anagogical» level, treating the world itself as the text to be deciphered. This refers to the medieval hermeneutic tradition. Some of Shakespeare’s works can be seen as proto-thrillers with considerable hermeneutic potential; he has also introduced a set of character-types, used in almost every thriller since. The next stage of development of the hermeneutic problematics within the genre is found in the works of John Buchan. Nowadays emerges a new sub-genre of culturological thriller, popularized by Dan Brown.

Suoni, visioni e affetti. Sugli aspetti para-teatrali dell’azione teatrale

A strong hermeneutical tradition insists that - in the relationship between human beings and artworks - there are aspects that are not liable to rational explanations, such as those that apply for instance to physical processes, geological sections, symptoms of disease. This peculiar character of the artistic works would have become even more evident with the emergence of abstractionism and – as far as theatre - with the progressive departure from text and the programmatic renunciation of representing something. In this work - after discussing the limits of psychoanalytic and semiological tools - I try to show the usefulness of cognitive sciences and today's theories of human communication in dealing with that problem, with reference to an emblematic case of "messages without meanings": pure (musical) sounds.

'We are the barriers': Danish general practitioners' interpretations of why the existential and spiritual dimensions are neglected in patient care.

Although it is broadly recognized that health problems often involve existential and spiritual dimensions, recent research shows that these aspects of illness are rarely attended to by health professionals. Studies explain this in terms of barriers to communication, but health professionals' firsthand experiences and interpretations have so far been largely unexplored. Drawing on the theoretical traditions of phenomenology and hermeneutics, the present study presents Danish general practitioners' (GPs') experiences and interpretations of why the existential and spiritual dimensions are marginalized in patient care. We conducted seven focus groups, constituting a total sample of 31 GPs. Based on the analytic strategy of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), our analysis revealed that the GPs experienced and interpreted individual barriers as created and fostered within dominant biomedical and secular cultures that are characterized as 'solution focused' and 'faith frightened'. Many GPs further understand themselves as barriers, because they are enculturated into these dominating cultures. We discuss these findings through theoretical concepts such as 'secondary socialization', 'system colonization' and 'secularization', and suggest interventions that might challenge current practice culture.

Porphyry and ‘Neopythagorean’ Exegesis in Cave of the Nymphs and Elsewhere

Porphyry’s position in the ancient hermeneutic tradition should be considered separately from his place in the Platonic tradition. He shows considerable respect for allegorizing interpreters with links to Pythagoreanism, particularly Numenius and Cronius, prominent sources in On the Cave of the Nymphs . The language of Homer’s Cave passage is demonstrably distinctive, resembling the Shield passage in the Iliad , and such as to suggest an ecphrasis to early imperial readers. Ecphrasis in turn suggested deeper significance for the story. While largely content to follow Numenian trends in interpreting Homer’s cave symbolically and in relation to multiple belief-systems, Porphyry shows occasionally signs of wanting to adhere more closely to Homeric evidence, resorting to symbolic interpretation mainly when no more straightforward truth is on offer.

Anthropology of Homo Interpretans

Paul Ricœur is rightly regarded as one of the greatest representants of the hermeneutical tradition, at the crossroads of epistemological filiation from Schleiermacher and Dilthey and the ontological filiation of Heidegger to Gadamer. Johann Michel's bias in this article is to explore a third way of hermeneutics under the guise of an interpretative anthropology. Before being a set of scholarly techniques (philological, legal, historical…) applied to specific fields (symbols, texts, actions…), hermeneutics derives originally from ordinary techniques of interpretation (unveiling, clarification…) at work in the world of life. The purpose of the contribution is to show how Ricoeur's hermeneutics can give serious directions for elaborating such an interpretive anthropology, in which case it also needs to be supplemented by other intellectual traditions to achieve this goal.

NIETZSCHE AND HERMENEUTICAL THINKING: FINITUDE AND TRUTH

The question of whether Nietzsche should or at least could be incorporated into the hermeneutical tradition has been a debate for many scholars is the last decades. Differing claims, both for and against, have been advanced by people such as Vattimo, Davey, Babich and Grondin. This work attempts to discuss some of these claims, addressing the hermeneutical background to Nietzsche’s thought focusing on two key concepts of his philosophy: finitude and truth. I argue that Nietzsche’s philosophy can be understood as hermeneutical thinking since it assumes the radical purpose to think our finite situation (in both epistemological and existential senses) in a way that is very close to the hermeneutical circularity of human understanding. I also argue that this interpretation allows such polemical theses as the will to power, perspectivism, and “theory of errors” to become comprehensive as a whole, and mutually compatible.

Heine's Displaced Philology

Heine's critical use of stock Romantic metaphors and images critically engages with the normative claims that inform the construction of the German literary canon. This essay explores his play with the metaphorical complex of organicism, uncovering his critique of the hermeneutic tradition of philology as a national project. Heine's metaphorics reread philology's obsession with singular origin and exclusionary boundaries of national literatures as a silencing and exclusion of its most creative voices. This “displaced philology” rejects the imperative of naturalization and homogenous constructions of language and culture as it returns the displaced to a position up front and in the center of a poetics that exposes the normative regime of the literary canon, and it rereads its linguistic politics to recover the creativity of the displaced.