Hermeneutics as a Metaphilosophy and a Philosophy of Work

In Michiel Meijer (ed.), Updating the interpretive turn: new arguments in hermeneutics. New York, NY: Routledge. pp. pp. 117-136 (2023)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The ‘interpretive turn’ in twentieth-century hermeneutics rests on the general ontological claim that human reality is the reality of self-interpreting animals. But under the circumstances of advanced modernity, there are aspects of human life, or spheres of human thought and action, that appear to contradict this general thesis, in that they do not present themselves as the doings of self-interpreting animals at all. Of these, the predominant one is the sphere of work or 'productive' action. In face of historical circumstances in which work presents itself as bereft of the meanings that concern self-interpreting animals, hermeneutic philosophy faces a choice: Does it exempt work from the realm of self-interpretive activity, making it an exception to the general ontological thesis; or does it seek to retrieve the hermeneutic provenance of productive action? With a focus on the writings of Gadamer and Ricoeur, the chapter shows that philosophical hermeneutics has vacillated on this issue and it suggests that retrieval of the self-interpretive dimension of productive action is a central task for hermeneutics today.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 101,667

External links

  • This entry has no external links. Add one.
Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

A hermeneutics of exploration: The interpretive turn from binswanger to gadamer.Roger Frie - 2010 - Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology 30 (2):79.
The utility of hermeneutic interpretation in psychotherapy.Michael W. Barclay - 1992 - Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology 12 (2):103-118.
Hermeneutics and Modern Philosophy.Brice R. Wachterhauser (ed.) - 1986 - State University of New York Press.
G. W. F. Hegel.John Russon - 2015 - In Niall Keane & Chris Lawn (eds.), A Companion to Hermeneutics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 354–359.
Hermeneutics and psychopathology: Jaspers and Hillman.Robert S. Corrington - 1987 - Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology 7 (2):70-80.
Hans-Georg Gadamer.J. R. Hustwit - 2017 - In Philip Goodchild & Hollis Phelps (eds.), Religion and European Philosophy: Key Thinkers from Kant to Zizek. Taylor & Francis. pp. 278-293.

Analytics

Added to PP
2022-11-30

Downloads
0

6 months
0

Historical graph of downloads

Sorry, there are not enough data points to plot this chart.
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Nicholas H Smith
University of Connecticut

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references