Hermeneutic Potential Research Articles

Methodological potential of phenomenology and hermeneutics in research on valeological, rehabilitation and physiotherapeutic activities

Aim: The aim of the study is to investigate the methodological potential of hermeneutics and phenomenology in modern specific scientific research on valeological, rehabilitation and physiotherapeutic activities, highlighting the substantive and functional features of phenomenology and hermeneutics in rehabilitation practice. Materials and Methods: The basis of scientific research is the method of historical-philosophical analysis. In working with texts, the general methodological basis was the acquisition of historical-critical and systemic-structural approaches. Also, the interdisciplinary approach played a leading role in the work, which within the scope of the study involves the synthesis of not only the norms of scientific research of primary sources, but also theoretical ideas and principles that determine the directions of the object’s research. Conclusions: It was established that hermeneutics and phenomenology have significant methodological potential in valeological, rehabilitation and physiotherapeutic research. It has been proven that the problem of understanding is of particular importance in rehabilitation activities. With the help of hermeneutics, it is possible to create a bridge for effective communication between the rehabilitation doctor and the patient.

H. PLESSNER’S HERMENEUTICS OF PHYSICALITY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF NON-VERBAL PRACTICES OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION

The paper is devoted to certain aspects of Helmut Plessner’s philosophical and anthropological theory of laughter and crying in the context of the development of non-verbal practices of human communication. The hermeneutic potential of his hermeneutic study about forms of human expressiveness is revealed, in which the philosopher offers his own vision of hermeneutics, first, as a hermeneutic of physicality.

‘Etsi peccaui, sum tamen ipse tuus’. O elegii pokutnej Drakoncjusza (i słówko o pojęciu: barokowa ‘elegia’ pokutna)

Dracontius’s Satisfactio, though undoubtedly a prime example of a very complex literary work, is not really a work that cannot be properly described in generic terms. Upon consideration, the label ‘penitential elegy’ appears to be the most appropriate one, as it clearly indicates the major theme of the poem (the contrition of the sinner who acknowledges his sin above all before the God and, in the second place, before the Vandal king Gunthamund, to whom he pleads guilty to some not fully specified misdeed) as well as its metrical form. As for the latter, what is of particular relevance is not merely the fact that the piece is composed in elegiac couplets, but also that it is clearly written with an eye on Ovid the elegist. It is above all Ovid’s exilic motifs that Dracontius reuses throughout his poem, with special focus on Tristia II, imitated not so much through explicit verbal echoes, but rather through the general analogy of poetic situations in which the punished poet openly addresses his punisher, the princeps (Dracontius ostentatiously cites this ‘Ovidian’ word). At times, Dracontius happens to be no less provocative than Ovid was in apostrophizing his powerful addressee, although adopting a protreptic tone (which naturally implies some sort of superiority to the literary ‘you’), he does not pose as an expert in poetry with blemish life, despite his musa iococa (as Ovid did), but as a ‘fellow-Christian’ (suppressing all doctrinal discrepancies between his own Catholicism and Gunthamund’s Arianism) and indeed: a ‘fellow-sinner’ who forgives his (royal) ‘brother’ and asks for forgiveness in return. Moreover, the penitential tone of the poem is also stressed by several references to the Psalms and in particular to the figure of King David doing penance, exactly as in the Polish Baroque penitential elegy. The generic label I have advocated throughout my article is, in fact, ‘borrowed from’ the students of Old-Polish poetry, who are virtually unanimous in recognizing Baroque penitential elegy as a separate literary subgenre. It is not my intention to argue against such conclusions, as the generic features indicated by those specialist are quite convincing (I myself have found them very helpful for my own research), yet what I do emphasize is the very fact that the term ‘elegy’ when referred to vernacular poetry is applied not strictly (it is not related to any specific meter) but rather metaphorically, as if merely pointing to a general ‘mood’ of a poem. In Latin poetry, however, ‘elegy’, meaning ‘automatically’ the elegiac distich, means also concrete intertextual associations, primarily with Ovid (precisely like in Dracontius’s Satisfactio). Hence, when used to describe Dracontius’s text, the label ‘penitential elegy’ reveals its full hermeneutic potential.

On Practical Uses of Ten Sefirot: Material Readings in an Early Modern Kabbalistic Collectaneum (MS Michael 473)

AbstractBy the end of the sixteenth century, textual manifestations of kabbalah—a variety of Jewish mysticism that first emerged in medieval Provence and Catalonia—achieved the status of elite but authoritative lore in Eastern and Central Europe, even if at times they stirred religious opposition. At the same time, and especially in the seventeenth century, the so-called practical kabbalah, associated with magic and a talismanic approach to religious ritual, gained substantial popularity among Ashkenazi (i.e., Eastern and Central European) Jews. This study centers on a multiple-text and composite codex, Oxford-Bodleian MS Michael 473, and throws into relief the dynamics of circulation of various kabbalistic traditions in early modern Eastern and Central Europe. By zooming in on a single codex, this article foregrounds the hermeneutic potential of contextual reading of texts in complex manuscripts and of interpreting material choices taken by their cocreators. It does so with a methodological agenda that goes beyond tracing of authorial genealogies, and beyond the sociology of texts and their producers, toward exploring the interpretive relations of literary and material form in early modern handwritten kabbalistic texts. The article showcases a single textual unit, Qabbalat ‘Eser Sefirot, that MS Michael 473 contains, in order to focus on the position of practical kabbalistic texts and practices within the spectrum of kabbalistic traditions of seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Eastern and Central Europe, ushered in by the contemporary modes of reading and transcription of texts.

Celebration Beyond (Un-)Belief: The Potential of Negative Hermeneutics for a Liturgical Apophaticism

This essay demonstrates how the engagement with specific liturgical traditions and the ambiguity of their celebration allows for an understanding of liturgy beyond the dichotomy of belief and unbelief. It analyses the potential of a “negative hermeneutics” of liturgical studies in the context of what is perceived as “cultural unbelief.” Taking Lieven Boeve's concept of a “cultural apophaticism” as a basis, it explores the reach of a negative hermeneutical approach, highlighting the paradoxical and apophatic character of the liturgical celebration and its necessary failure and developing the idea of a “liturgical apophaticism.” It shows how the liturgical celebration does not simply counteract the dynamic of unbelief but exceeds it. In a final step, this essay explores the potential that liturgy has to recreate and transform “unbelief” and the implications of negative aspects of faith and belief for the broader theological discourse.

The theology of education and religious education in schools

In a recent article in Theology (Vol. 125, no. 1, pp. 3–11), Professors Trevor Cooling and Robert A. Bowie discussed the Final Report of the Commission on Religious Education (CoRE) and identified two ways in which Christian theology can become a ‘conversation partner’ with a worldview approach to religious education: first, through theological interaction with the concept of worldview; and second, by showing the potential of biblical hermeneutics to teaching about a Christian worldview. It is argued that the concept of a worldview finds its origins outside Christian theology and fails to capture the nature of Christianity and that the highly abstract, philosophical character of the concept of worldview makes it an unsuitable vehicle for religious education in schools. It is accepted, however, that biblical hermeneutics has a contribution to make to religious education, albeit as a component within the broader subject of (general) hermeneutics, although this positive contribution is not supported or anticipated by CoRE, but rather expresses the views of Cooling and Bowie, who are contributing to a long-running debate on the role and form of hermeneutics in religious education.

Смысл юридической практики и установки теории права: комментарий к радикальной «герменевтике» Р. Дворкина

This paper discusses conception of legal interpretativism proposed by a famous American jurist, Ronald Dworkin (1931–2013) in context of problems of “practical orientation” of legal theory. The first part of the paper states key attitudes of R. Dworkin’s interpretive approach as to understanding of law and legal practice, interpretative character of legal propositions, and necessary practical “involvement” of legal theorist. The second part assesses R. Dworkin’s interpretive theory, emphasizes importance of its “practical direction”, as well as its argumentative and hermeneutic potential. Simultaneously, the paper highlights a number of “dark spots” within the American jurist’s conception that require elucidation/justification. These are linked with an unjustified universalization of argumentative character of legal practice and of the idea of “the best moral light”, with lack of clarity in the idea of legal theorist’s “participation” in the practice being comprehended, as well as with radicalism and insufficiency of R. Dworkin’s arguments to neutralize legitimate plurality of legal doctrines.

Noi descoperiri în vechi colecții: un vas antropomorf de tip „dublu Janus” descoperit la Trușești / New discoveries in old collections: A “Double Janus” anthropomorphic vessel discovered in Trușești

The main purpose of our study is to (re) introduce into the scholarly circuit – with all the necessary details – an anthropomorphic vessel of a particular type discovered in Trușești-Țuguieta (Botoșani County) more than six decades ago (pl. 1-2). Its correct typological description and classification brings a new perspective on the symbolism embedded in these vessels, as an important category of sacred objects, which have a hermeneutic potential still not completely unveiled.Published in the site monograph as a vessel with a “lobed body” , the container is an anthropomorphic vessel regarded up to the present as one of a kind within the archaeological discoveries in the Cucuteni-Trypillia area. Viewed from any of its four sides, the vessel depicts the front of a female anthropomorphic figure. Specifically, it depicts the abdominal area and hips of four female figures positioned back-to-back. The female shapes are rendered in a typical representation for the Cucuteni anthropomorphic vessels, with emphasis on the abdomen and groin area, on the wide-shaped hips merges with the rest of the vessel. Referring to the typological classification made previously by us for some of the anthropomorphic vessels with a quasi-symmetrical profile, regarded as double-sided vessels of “janiform type” (pl. 3/3-4; 4), one can assert that this four-sided container is of “double Janus” type, being characterized by a feature that has been defined as an “image multiplication”.The presentation of the “double Janus”-type vessel of Trușești also gives us an opportunity to review the known archaeological data regarding the finding contexts of anthropomorphic vessels, of Cucuteni or from the contemporary and neighboring cultural areas. Their analysis allowed us to notice certain patterns of usage and abandonment of these containers, as well as the high frequency of certain associations with other types of rare artifacts, many indicated in archaeological studies as “cult pieces”. The synthesized data support the role of such anthropomorphic vessels as paraphernalia, artifacts that were used in ritual scenographies with a precisely defined role (which today can only be guessed), which is also polysemantic, being a special channel of nonverbal communication.

Conflict as a Category of Literary Studies: Analytical Research Strategies

The substantiation of the methodological viability and hermeneutic potential of the category conflict is given. The role of conflict as a category of world modeling in fiction is pointed out. Consideration of the conflict in the aspect of dialogism is suggested. Conflict in fiction is a special kind of communicative act arising from the antagonism of misunderstanding of the opposing sides, but providing a new level of understanding to the perceiving consciousness of the reader, making it intellectually armed (R. Jacobson) in the face of conflicting structures. Analytical strategies for the study of conflict are presented in the semantic aspect (conflict as an object of artistic depiction) and the aspect of structure (conflict as a fundamental structural principle). It is proved that the dual nature of the conflict presupposes taking into account in research practice the possibilities of textocentric and anthropological approaches to the study of conflict, understood as antagonistic relations of oppositional units. The development of epistemology, axiology and poetics of conflict in fiction is seen in the way of studying all levels of conflict dialogue.

‘Por una gentil floresta’: Invention, Discovery and Desire in a Fifteenth-Century Villancico

We persistently fail to appreciate the very status of cancionero poetry as an innovative art form, as literature worthy of serious analysis, and as an intellectual and humanistic pursuit. The villancico ‘Por una gentil floresta’, attributed to both the Marqués de Santillana and Suero de Ribera, is a case in point, a composition that is very well known but grossly underappreciated as a work of art, a cultural commentary, or for its social significance. It exists in multiple incarnations, in both the manuscript and early printed traditions of the cancioneros, attesting to its ample circulation and popularity. While the object of intense philological enquiry regarding issues of authorship, transmission, and possible influence, the numerous studies dedicated to this villancico do not foreclose further discussion of it to achieve greater appreciation of its artistic and human complexity. Close reading illustrates the abundant literary, thematic and cultural possibilities it offers, and allows us to articulate the wealth, intricacy, human understanding and artistic significance of fifteenth-century Castilian courtly verse; possibilities that reach well beyond philology and textual criticism and prove it a rich source for fruitful interpretation that exemplifies the kind of poetry and hermeneutical potential that can be found in the cancioneros.

Digitality, Diversity, and the Future of Rhetoric and Public Address

AbstractThe pandemic and economic catastrophes of 2020 and the forms of resistance that surged against racist systemic and physical violence indicate, we contend, that studying public address in the present moment requires attention to the mutual contingency of rhetoric and digitality. Relying on interdisciplinary literatures and a global perspective, we direct such attention along three vectors: platforms, commons, and methods. We indicate how theorizing rhetoric and digitality transforms critical and historical traditions. In expanding the purview of the public address tradition while retaining the tradition’s hermeneutic potential, we emphasize the need to challenge disciplinary terms and the desirability of expanded analytical methods. We submit that by not attending sufficiently to the advent and diffusion of digital media technologies, public address scholarship misses opportunities to shape ongoing conversations about how rhetoric mediates public affairs; and that insofar as struggles for racial justice are bound up with, not just mediated by, digitality, the prospects of diversifying rhetoric’s professoriate increase when research on this topic is central rather than peripheral.

The concept of plasticity in the philosophy of Catherine Malabou: take, give and break the form

The object of this research is the concept of plasticity. The subject of this research concept of plasticity proposed by the French philosopher Catherine Malabou. The author examines the genealogy of the concept of plasticity, which includes the developments of the ancient philosophers Goethe and Hegel. Catherine Malabou based her system on the Hegelian conceptualization of plasticity. The author reviews several types of plasticity offered by Catherine Malabou, among which is neuroplasticity and destructive plasticity. Special attention is given to discrepancies between the concepts of “plasticity” and “flexibility”. The scientific novelty of this work lies in the analysis of novel approaches towards understanding the interrelation between philosophy and biology in the area of representations on human. The author notes that plasticity is the modern materialistic paradigm for understanding human from the perspective of the currently relevant philosophical direction of posthumanism. The following conclusions are formulated: plasticity indicates that nothing in the world can be set once and for all; plasticity has considerable hermeneutical potential due to its own flexibility and variability; plasticity is a productive way of posthumanistic representations on human due to its anti-essentialist orientation.

Методологические основы применения герменевтического подхода в преподавании гуманитарных дисциплин. Часть 1. Основные принципы герменевтики

The article raises the problem of the compliance of the education system with the requirements of the new time, since this system continues to rely on the knowledge paradigm, ignoring the fact that in an oversaturated information environment, knowledge quickly depreciates and becomes irrelevant. The author comes to the conclusion that a person will quickly adapt to new realities if the education system does not focus on obtaining readymade knowledge, but on developing the ability to independently acquire the necessary knowledge, critically assess it and generate, on this basis, new ideas for effectively solving life problems. To reach the goal a hermeneutic approach should be used in the process of studying the humanities. In the research, the author reveals the educational potential of hermeneutics, the essence of which is to activate the cognitive process, develop the skills of productive work with different sources of information. In the article, the author describes the basic principles of working with text, which allow a deeper assimilation of the material, which opens up prospects for further research — to develop and test an understanding technique that can be used to study verbal texts.

Памятник в контексте исторической памяти

The article examines the problem of the relationship between historical monuments and historical memory. The purpose of the article: to consider the hermeneutical significance of monuments. In this context, the sculptural image is considered as a special way of understanding the past and interpreting history. This approach involves the use of hermeneutical methodology in the study of historical monuments, in which monuments appear to be the assertion of certain values and ideas. The ideas expressed in the monuments connect the past with the present and the future, are the embodiment of the identification symbols of the people and the state. The ideological component of the semantics of historical monuments is investigated. It is shown that the monuments are used to establish a certain political project of power, which is justified by the construction of the corresponding historical narrative. At the same time, monuments appear as sacred symbols of historical memory in its essential aspect, as a fateful connection between the past and the present. The dialogical nature of historical memory is considered. It is proved that the main condition for such dialogicality is the apophatic horizon of historical truth, which allows us to see the unity and integrity of the historical process in the diversity of past events. The penetration into the apophatic horizon of the truth about the past determines the hermeneutic potential of the historical monument as a means of understanding and conceptualizing the memory of the past. The author considers the semantic levels of a historical monument: the external level, which addresses the facticity of a historical person or event, and the artistic content of the monument, which reveals the significance of this facticity. The semantics of the first level is determined by the ideologeme associated with the policy of memorization. The intrinsic value of this level leads to simplification, schematization of the image, turning the monument into a simple memorative sign. The second level involves the expression of the ideological content of history in the monument. Such a level of understanding is based on the personal characteristics of the hero to his specific historical significance and universal universal meanings. Thus, a hermeneutic circle is formed, in which the visual concreteness of the image combines the facticity of a historical person or event and the ideological content of this facticity.

Centaury Andrieja Biełego

Andrei Bely, like most Russian symbolists, absorbed and transposed mythical characters and stories into his work, especially those born in the ancient times. Centaurs derive their origins from Greek mythology and are most often presented as hybrid creatures (half man, half animal). In Bely’s view, they become a symbol of the dual nature of man who struggles with suffering resulting from the simultaneous belonging to two worlds: humans and animals, matter and senses, spirituality and dark urges. In Bely’s works, the image of these mythical animals serves as an element of an artistic game with the recipient (by analogy to the “games of centaurs”), in the course of which it becomes possible to read the artist’s attitude to the myth about these animals, to the surrounding reality, and finally – to oneself. The myth itself reveals its philosophical, psychological and hermeneutical potential. That is why in Bely’s works the presence of centaurs has a multidimensional character, built on the interpenetration of the tame and the alien, tempered and wild, real and cosmic. All this determines the transgressive quality of the myth of centaurs in the work of the Russian symbolist.

A análise textual discursiva como uma bússola praxiológica à perspectiva freireana de educação

Alguns estudos têm discutido contribuições da Análise Textual Discursiva (ATD) no desenvolvimento de pesquisas baseadas na perspectiva freireana. Todavia, há de se evidenciar aspectos teórico-metodológicos da ATD que se aproximam da abordagem freireana, tendo em vista as articulações já realizadas com a Investigação Temática. Assim, busca-se investigar aproximações e complementaridades da realização da ATD na Investigação Temática - processo de obtenção de Temas Geradores -, tomando como ponto de partida os pressupostos freireanos de educação e a análise do Projeto Inter, desenvolvido durante o Movimento de Reorientação Curricular de São Paulo. As diferentes releituras da Investigação Temática e suas relações com a ATD permitiram caracterizar os potenciais metodológico, hermenêutico e dialético. Esses potenciais se expressam sobre a abertura da ATD à realização da práxis, fato que justifica sua utilização nos trabalhos de cunho freireano, bem como a configura como uma bússola praxiológica, que pode orientar/operacionalizar a busca pela transformação da realidade. Palavras-chave: Paulo Freire; Investigação Temática; Metodologia de Análise.

Old Irish etymology through the ages

ABSTRACTThe etymological study of Early Irish began in the Old Irish period (c. 700‒900 a.d.), under the influence of Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae, and, because of its flexible hermeneutic potential, it enjoyed great popularity in the middle and early modern periods. It is only with the rise of modern comparative linguistics, especially of Indo-European linguistics in the second half of the 19th century, that the art of Irish etymology attained scholarly rigour. Over the past 150 years, paradigm shifts in Indo-European studies (laryngeal theory, accent/ablaut classes of inflection, derivational morphology) and the development of modern technology (digitisation of texts, e.g. eDIL, ISOS) have repeatedly chang-ed the methods and the course of Irish etymological studies. The impact of some of these external factors will be illustrated with examples.

Said, Auerbach, and the Return to Philological Hermeneutics

ABSTRACTThis essay explores the relationship between Edward Said’s well-known contrapuntal reading of history and Erich Auerbach’s Ansatzpunkt, or point of departure, as a means of entering a given hermeneutic circle. Although Auerbach occupied an increasingly prominent place in Said’s critical thought, his engagement with the work of the German philologist has been largely ignored or downplayed. In this essay I take the figure of exile, which is so central to Said’s scholarship and which he explicitly links with the intellectual mission of critique, as a point of departure for a deepened exploration of Said’s critical method—a method developed in critical dialogue with Auerbach’s work. Building on the existing literature, I argue that Auerbach offers more than simply a way for Said to problematize identity politics and to challenge the dogmatism of received notions of home and political belonging. More than this, I argue that the German philologist provides Said with a way to reconfigure the dialectic between history and literature; to develop his contrapuntal approach to reading history; and to rethink the parameters of a historicist humanism that, in turn, enables him to reactivate the critical potential of philological hermeneutics.

The Innocent Old Way: Reserved Interpretation and Christina Rossetti's “Goblin Market”

Christina Rossetti's “Goblin Market” has long been recognized as an interpretive enigma. Simultaneously conducting its own surface reading and inviting us to interrogate its buried meanings, the poem adapts the Tractarian doctrine of reserve to set up a hermeneutic paradox rooted in Victorian exegetical thought. Variously a standard for reticent poetic style, an apologia for divine mystery, and a prescription for limiting complex theological knowledge, reserve also served Victorian thinkers as a hermeneutic strategy. Rossetti plays reserve against itself by dramatizing its dueling imperatives—inciting and containing curiosity. Laura's epilogue forecloses interpretation for “illiterate” spiritual children—those who might misconstrue mysterious meanings; simultaneously, the epilogue mobilizes a competing dimension of reserve, juxtaposing its interpretive gatekeeping against its hermeneutic potential. Anticipating recent reading debates, Rossetti's reserve generates a temporally recursive hermeneutic, within which competing interpretations and interpretive modes can be imagined to coexist.

ПРОБЛЕМА «ПАТОДИЦЕИ» В ИСТОРИИ ФИЛОСОФИИ («ПАТЕМАТИКА» М. К. МАМАРДАШВИЛИ)

The article provides a historical and philosophical survey of views on “pathodicy” - an original philosophical conception revealing the meaning of human suffering, justifying human passions, emotions, life experience, which impart dramatic tonus not only to human existence but to any anthropological conception. Aesthetic potential of “pathodicy” is most clearly manifested in A. Schopenhauer’s creative work and the analysis of consciousness pragmatics helps V. Frankl and M. K. Mamardashvili to justify the necessity of “conscious mode of existence” and to develop original “pathodicy” conceptions (in Mamardashvili’s case - within the framework of “pathematics”) actualizing the aesthetical and hermeneutic potential of their own philosophy.