It is no coincidence that the relationship between Paul Ricoeur and Michel Foucault has been principally discussed in research carried out by specialists in one of these two thinkers. Although active at the same time, the scholar can easily get the impression that they worked in two parallel philosophical universes. This paper will argue, however, that a comparative reading is nonetheless possible. Taking identity and the subject as key areas of discussion, as well as the methodology used to deal with (...) these themes, this paper will highlight the continuities between both the philosophers’ world views. A reading of their post-1980 works makes it clear that both of them, each in his respective way, can enrich a reading of the other and that, more than just being contemporaries, they share several important points in common. (shrink)

It is no coincidence that the relationship between Paul Ricoeur and Michel Foucault has been principally discussed in research carried out by specialists in one of these two thinkers. Although active at the same time, the scholar can easily get the impression that they worked in two parallel philosophical universes. This paper will argue, however, that a comparative reading is nonetheless possible. Taking identity and the subject as key areas of discussion, as well as the methodology used to deal with (...) these themes, this paper will highlight the continuities between both the philosophers’ world views. A reading of their post-1980 works makes it clear that both of them, each in his respective way, can enrich a reading of the other and that, more than just being contemporaries, they share several important points in common. (shrink)

In this essay, I first analyze the extension of hermeneutical interpretation in the Heideggerian sense to products of contemporary technology which are components of our “lifeworld”. Products of technology, such as airplanes, laptops, cellular phones, washing machines, or vacuum cleaners might be compared with what Heidegger calls the “Ready-to-hand” (das Zuhandene) with regard to utilitarian objects such as a hammer, planer, needle and door handle in Being and Time. Our life with our equipment, which represents the “Ready-to-hand” in Heidegger's sense (...) of the word, is determined by temporalization (Zeitigung) which cannot be separated and isolated from the wholeness of things in the world. In the second part of my paper, I explore the positive achievement of material hermeneutics (Don Ihde) with regard to its extension to technoscience and the discussion of how such hermeneutics can contribute to the preservation of our threatened lifeworld, but also to explore the possibilities of how technical inventions, medical innovations could improve our way of life. (shrink)

In this little volume, Anthony Thiselton makes an impassioned appeal for closer attention to the philosophy of hermeneutics. Emilio Betti provocatively observes that hermeneutics ought to constitute an obligatory course for most degrees in the humanities. Hermeneutics, he insists, teaches patience, tolerance, respect for other views, understanding, and humility, while holding one's own views with firmness and generosity. Yet many teaching institutions do not yet recognize this. With this in mind, Thiselton first considers and responds to those (...) who argue that hermeneutics is not necessary. Then he considers anew more sophisticated thinkers on the subject. Types of texts and hermeneutical models, he argues, are almost infinite, a fact many biblical scholars do not recognize. In the field of biblical hermeneutics, too many view the Bible as one thing, or as a monochrome landscape--it is not. The culmination of Thiselton's case consists in a sustained reflection on the impressive work of Paul Ricoeur, selecting thirteen points of genuine advance his work makes. With a glossary of fifty technical terms this is a volume that will prove helpful to student and scholar alike. (shrink)

The initial obstacle to the development of a hermeneutics of the natural sciences has been the inadequate translation, and thus misunderstanding, of the basic terms of Heidegger's ontological analysis ofthe protopractical human situation and its progressive technicization. Pragmatism's parallel analyses of the problem situation of scientists has promoted a more idiomatically English vocabulary. But 1) Gadamer's exclusion of domains and disciplines working with technical methods from his universal hermeneutics continues to be influential, this in spite of the (...) genesis of his project in Helmholtz's insights into the process of scientific discovery. 2) Markus thus depicts a distinctly different style of production, transmission, and reception of the technological texts of natural science. 3) Rouse's 1987 extension of pragmatic hermeneutics into the incipient politics of knowledge/power relations in laboratory science presents the usual frightening prospects connected with laboratory experimentation impacting on disciplinary social institutions. 4) Rouse's 1996 analysis of scientific practices in local narrative situations eschews the banner of hermeneutics and instead proposes to examine scientific-technological work by way of interdisciplinary ’ cultural studies, once the traditional loci of hermeneutic methodology. 5) A hermeneutic phenomenology of the natural sciences thus finds itself fundamentally challenged with respect to its rightful topics and roles in the analysis of increasingly technicized disciplines and domains. (shrink)

Hermeneutics, the study of interpretation, is an essential and valuable branch of philosophy. Hermeneutics is also a central component of the methodology of the social sciences and the humanities, for example historiography, anthropology, art history, and literary criticism. In a sequence of accessible chapters, contributors across the human sciences explain the leading concepts and ideas of hermeneutics, the historical development of the field, the importance of hermeneutics in philosophy today, and the ways in which it can (...) address contemporary concerns including intercultural relations, relations between subcultures within a single society, and relations across race and gender. Clearly structured and written in non-technical language, this Companion will be an important contribution to a growing field of study. (shrink)

I would like to introduce the notion of machine hermeneutics in this paper. The notion refers to hermeneutical activity performed by machines. Machines are now capable of making the very interpretive tasks, using artificial intelligence algorithms based on the technology of machine learning that used to be the exclusive domain of human beings. In making this claim, I am not talking about possible conscious machines of the future, but those existing here and now. With facial recognition algorithms, for example, (...) machines are now performing routinely what must be regarded as hermeneutical analyses with astounding accuracy and power. Thus, machine hermeneutics supplements Don Ihde’s notion of material hermeneutics. In the latter, it is still human beings who do the interpretation, through the lenses provided the natural sciences; in this case, the natural sciences, or the technology afforded by the sciences, intervene between the human being and the world. In machine hermeneutics, on the contrary, the intervening comes in two layers. On the one hand, there is the usual intervention that Ihde talks about, but on the other, the artificial intelligence algorithm performs its own kind of intervention and interpretation, presenting an already interpreted result to the human beings, who then perceive it through the aid of the usual intervention such as the normal eyeglasses. Then the paper discusses the problem of how to justify the kind of perception that undergoes this process. In what sense can it be said that the algorithm is performing the right action, i.e., one such that the process comes up with a right picture of the world? I contend that this does not merely consist of technical excellence for the technology involved, but also ethical excellence. The two cannot be considered one apart from the other. (shrink)

The article considers the logical and philosophical doctrine of sophists, which, according to some modern researchers, was more philosophical than their ancient critics recognized. A comparison of the provisions of Aristotle's hermeneutics with preserved fragments of Protagoras and Gorgias shows that the doctrine of sophists was a kind of holistic philosophy, which anticipated the philosophy of dialogue of the XX century. Despite the fact that the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle tried to overcome the relativism and anti-ontologism of the (...) doctrine of sophists, some elements of its dialogueism were preserved in subsequent philosophy in dialectics and rhetoric. The first thing you should pay attention to is the difference between the dialogical form of the presentation of philosophy in Plato and dialogue as the fundamental basis of thinking that we find among sophists. The dialogueism preserved in the dialectic of Plato and the rhetoric of Aristotle is more a technical method of convincing the interlocutor than a hermeneutical basis, which it is in the philosophy of dialogue and in the method of Socratic discussion. The linguistic turn that occurred in the philosophy of the 20th century includes not only an increased interest in language and accuracy of expression. No less important is the new formulation of the question of the nature of the language. Is language a tool for the formulation of thought as Aristotle believed and followed by representatives of modern analytical philosophy, or does it have its own fundamental status, as representatives of the philosophy of dialogue believe? In this context, it is very important for the philosophy of dialogue to find in the thinking of the pre-Socratics those predecessors who already two and a half thousand years ago charted the paths for modern thought. The first part of the article analyzes the relationship between Aristotles hermeneutics and hermeneutics of sophists. (shrink)

The article considers the logical and philosophical doctrine of sophists, which, according to some modern researchers, was more philosophical than their ancient critics recognized. A comparison of the provisions of Aristotle's hermeneutics with preserved fragments of Protagoras and Gorgias shows that the doctrine of sophists was a kind of holistic philosophy, which anticipated the philosophy of dialogue of the XX century. Despite the fact that the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle tried to overcome the relativism and anti-ontologism of the (...) doctrine of sophists, some elements of its dialogism were preserved in subsequent philosophy in dialectics and rhetoric. The first thing you should pay attention to is the difference between the dialogical form of the presentation of philosophy in Plato and dialogue as the fundamental basis of thinking that we find among sophists. The dialogism preserved in the dialectic of Plato and the rhetoric of Aristotle is more a technical method of convincing the interlocutor than a hermeneutical basis, which it is in the philosophy of dialogue and in the method of Socratic discussion. The linguistic turn that occurred in the philosophy of the 20th century includes not only an increased interest in language and accuracy of expression. No less important is the new formulation of the question of the nature of the language. Is language a tool for the formulation of thought as Aristotle believed and followed by representatives of modern analytical philosophy, or does it have its own fundamental status, as representatives of the philosophy of dialogue believe? In this context, it is very important for the philosophy of dialogue to find in the thinking of the pre-Socratics those predecessors who already charted the paths for modern thought two and a half thousand years ago. The second part of the article discusses the forms of the dialogic thinking that have survived in philosophy after the sophists and the role of the sophists' hermeneutics in the formation of modern philosophy of dialogue. (shrink)

Recent advances in natural language generation (NLG), such as public accessibility to ChatGPT, have sparked polarised debates about the societal impact of this technology. Popular discourse tends towards either overoptimistic hype that touts the radically transformative potentials of these systems or pessimistic critique of their technical limitations and general ‘stupidity’. Surprisingly, these debates have largely overlooked the exegetical capacities of these systems, which for many users seem to be producing meaningful texts. In this paper, we take an interdisciplinary approach (...) that combines hermeneutics—the study of meaning and interpretation—with prompt engineering—task descriptions embedded in input to NLG systems—to study the extent to which a specific NLG system, ChatGPT, produces texts of hermeneutic value. We design prompts with the goal of optimising hermeneuticity rather than mere factual accuracy, and apply them in four different use cases combining humans and ChatGPT as readers and writers. In most cases, ChatGPT produces readable texts that respond clearly to our requests. However, increasing the specificity of prompts’ task descriptions leads to texts with intensified neutrality, indicating that ChatGPT’s optimisation for factual accuracy may actually be detrimental to the hermeneuticity of its output. (shrink)

The essay reflects on Gadamer’s ambiguous legacy for the philosophy of work. On the one hand, there are times when Gadamer reproduces the problematic distinction between language and labor which short-circuits the very idea of a hermeneutics of work. This is particularly evident in Gadamer’s reflections on technique and craftsmanship in the central sections of Truth and Method, as well as in his descriptions of the “art” of dialogue and the tasks of hermeneutics that separate them emphatically them (...) from the sphere of “making.” I raise some questions about the adequacy of the distinction Gadamer draws between techne and phronesis that structures this account. I argue here that Gadamer’s characterization of the learning process involved in the mastery of a technique, as well as his conception of the instrumentality and monologicality of technical knowledge, is difficult to sustain, especially in view of recent research in the psychology and anthropology of work. I then go on to point out that elsewhere in his oeuvre Gadamer himself is critical of the conception of work that emerges through the lens of the techne / phronesis distinction. Indeed, on these occasions he hints at a conception of work that points beyond the Arendt / Habermas conception towards a critical hermeneutics of working life. This alternative approach to work is particularly apparent in Gadamer’s appropriation of Hegel’s dialectic, in his understanding of play, and in some of his later diagnostic reflections on the spirit of the age. In section four, I offer some suggestions for explaining how the tensions evident in Gadamer’s approach to work came about. Here I am interested in what prevented Gadamer from embracing whole-heartedly the project of a hermeneutics of work that he himself helped to lay the foundations for. I conclude with some brief remarks on why we should seek to build upon these foundations and renew the project of a critical hermeneutics of work today. (shrink)

Hermeneutic and anti-hermeneutic sides in the debate about psychoanalysis are entangled in an epistemological and methodological antinomy, here exemplified by Grünbaum's and Spence's paradigmatic views. Both contain a partial element of truth, which they assert dialectically one against the other (§§ 1 and 2). This antinomy disappears only by reconciling an operationalist approach with man's ability to suspend the effectiveness of the‘laws’ applied to him (§ 3). The hermeneutic way in which the technical-operational criterion of truth works in psychoanalysis (...) demands that clinical and extra-clinical testing methods work synergically, through a fruitful self-correcting strategy, grounded on the very psychoanalytic object: the unconscious (§ 4). (shrink)

Abstract“Patient-centred care” is the recent response to the malaise produced in the field of health care from the point of view both of a technical mentality and the paternalistic model. The interest in the story-telling approach shown by both the humanities and the social sciences has favoured a “narrative turn” in medicine too, where the new ethics of therapeutic relationship consider the hermeneutic method a means by which to integrate evidence and subjectivity, scientific data and patient experience. The aim (...) of this paper is to show how Ricoeur’s theory of “threefold mimesis” makes a conceptual contribution to the use of narrative interviews in nursing and also be successfully transferred into and applied in the field of healthcare in general. First, the paper examines how this narrative approach might open up new possibilities for the acquisition of in-depth knowledge of patients’ life experiences, a condition indispensable for the improvement of the quality of care. Secondly, it highlights how this Ricoeurian method seems capable of provide an opportunity for healthcare professionals to review their own understanding of the caregiver-patient therapeutic relationship, beginning with their confrontation with the patient’s world as revealed by the narrative they provide. (shrink)

In terms of understanding and interpreting a text, both the Christian world and the Islamic world have developed a discipline appropriate to the nature of the belief in their own books. Schleiermacher, one of the names that had a profound effect on modern hermeneutics, proposes two methods, grammatical and psychological methods, in understanding and interpreting the New Testament (Gospels). In this study, an evaluation has been made about whether the psychological method (hermeneutics) of Schleiermacher, who is a Christian (...) theologian, can be utilized in the Qur’anic exegesis (Tafsir) and interpretation (Ta’wil) and the similarities and intersections of this method with the sciences in the Qur’anic exegesis method have been attempted to be explained. In line with this goal, first of all, information about the understanding of the holy book in Christianity and Islam was given. Afterwards, the definitions of the intuitive and comparative method, psychological and technical task proposed by Schleiermacher in his psychological method were made and its contents were explained. In the last part, it has been evaluated whether the aforementioned methods will contribute to the interpretation of the Qur’an, and if a similar method has been formed as a science in the Islamic scientific tradition or in the method of tafsir, this is also stated. In addition, an opinion has been expressed on whether the methods that cannot be used directly in the interpretation of the Qur’an can be applied to the authors of tafsir (mufassirun) and the tafsirs they have written. (shrink)

‘Narrativity and Hermeneutics’ is not an obvious subject to mark the fifth anniversary of a centre devoted to applied ethics. Narrative tradition and the interpretation of texts are not the main concern of handbooks on biomedical ethics, engineering ethics, business ethics or ecological ethics. The reasons are evident; most practitioners of applied ethics see their area of research as a functionally differentiated discipline, a carefully circumscribed field wherein only specialists are competent. In their textbooks they adopt the view of (...) ethical expertise as defended by Theo van Willingenburg in his noteworthy thesis Inside the Ethical Expert. According to this view, practitioners of applied ethics are experts possessing a body of specialized knowledge and skill within a given domain acquired through a substantial amount of study and training. Besides being able to clarify problems and analyze concepts and arguments, they are, as experts, also able to apply specific skills of moral reasoning to reach a substantiated evaluation of values and norms, with the ultimate purpose of offering suitable ethical advice.The acquisition of a certain amount of expertise is doubtless important. The practice of applied ethics is more than probing for a good moral intention. They primarily pursue the right moral choice, i.e. the action that in a given, often complex situation, is objectively suitable to express a good moral intention. A right moral choice is impossible without a thorough clarification of the complex reality about which a moral judgment must be made.Yet emphasizing ethical expertise does not say everything. Is it correct to position ethicists as experts parallel to the medical, economic or technical experts with whom they deal? Does applied ethics, because of its functionally differentiated approach, not run the risk of either reducing itself to a professional deontology with a limited view of responsibility or enclosing itself with other experts in an iron cage of technocratic, bureaucratic or instrumental rationality? When forming an ethical judgment, is it possible to exclude completely all influence arising from personal convictions? (shrink)

The conception on which the affirmative philosophy of G.G. Shpet rests can be called hermeneutic phenomenology. The choice of this term demands explanation. Shpet's basic hermeneutic work, Hermeneutics and Its Problems [Germenevtika i ee problemy], was completed in 1918. At the time hermeneutics was understood usually as the art of grasping the meaning of a text. It is worth noting that this art was quite specific. It consisted mostly of a set of psychological techniques for "penetrating" into the (...) internal world of the text's author. The techniques were empathy, sympathy, immersion in a historico-cultural world, and imaginative penetration into the author's creative "workshop." Understood in this way, hermeneutics was a psychologically loaded research method. And if it is treated only in that way, the recently coined term "hermeneutic phenomenology" is in respect to content internally contradictory. As I see it, Shpet fully realized what conclusions could follow from this. Nevertheless his fundamental aspirations are connected precisely with the idea of unifying hermeneutics and phenomenology. This is possible because words have a complex structure . The sense of a word is objective and can be known by nonpsychological methods. The art of comprehending the sense of a text must inevitably include semiotic methods as well as logical and phenomenological techniques. They are aimed at comprehending (studying, researching, but not "grasping" or "sympathizing with" the objective, internal sense of the text. All the other elements of the sensible structure of the text are overlaid with the psychological peculiarities of the author and historical and social conditions. They are external factors that influence the sense of the text in a distinctive way and, without question, must be taken into account and included in the investigation of texts under the general heading "conditions of understanding," which are comprehended by the historical method. The psychological and historical methods in hermeneutics were historically conditioned research techniques, scientific means of comprehending sense under conditions when semiotic means were not yet developed, contemporary logico-semantic techniques were not available, and the phenomenological method was not yet invented. For this reason hermeneutics is reducible conceptually to a mere psychological art: it was only forced into being this by the lack of technical instrumentation. Moreover, the psychological hermeneutics of the nineteenth century may be called without any exaggeration the historical variant of hermeneutics in general. (shrink)

The professions of nursing and nurse education are currently experiencing a crisis of confidence, particularly in the UK, where the Francis Report and other recent reviews have highlighted a number of cases of nurses who no longer appear willing or able to ‘care’. The popular press, along with some elements of the nursing profession, has placed the blame for these failures firmly on the academy and particularly on the relatively recent move to all‐graduate status in England for pre‐registration student nurses. (...) This has come to be known in the UK as the ‘too‐posh‐to‐wash’ argument, that there is an incommensurability between being educated to degree level and performing basic nursing tasks. I will argue in this paper that the diagnosis of the problem is substantively correct, but the formulation and the prescription are misguided and dangerous. I will suggest that the growing emphasis on research‐based and evidence‐based practice is the logical conclusion of an inappropriate scientific paradigm for nursing which is underpinned by the social sciences, by technical rationality, and by a focus on people. In contrast, I will suggest that a more fruitful way of thinking about and practising nursing and nurse education is to consider it as a human science with a focus on persons in which evidence for practice derives largely from practice itself. The history of the idea of a human science is traced from its roots in nineteenth century hermeneutics to the work of Gadamer and R.D. Laing in the 1960s, and I attempt to imagine a paradigm for nursing practice, scholarship, and education based on Laing's ‘existential–phenomenological’ approach with a focus on the endeavour to understand and relate to individual persons rather than to make broad prescriptions for practice based on statistical and other generalizations. (shrink)

This paper aims to connect Stiegler’s reflections on theoretical computer science with his practical propositions for the design of digital technologies. Indeed, Stiegler’s theory of exosomatization implies a new conception of artificial intelligence, which is not based on an analogical paradigm (which compares organisms and machines, as in cybernetics, or which compares thought and computing, as in cognitivism) but on an organological paradigm, which studies the co-evolution of living organisms (individuals), artificial organs (tools), and social organizations (institutions). Such a perspective (...) does not compare human capacities to machine performances but studies the way in which the evolution of material and technical supports affects and transforms psychological, cognitive or noetic faculties (intuition, memory, understanding, imagination, sensibility, reason, etc.), as well as the constitution of different kinds of knowledge. This new theoretical paradigm implies a new ‘design’ for digital technologies, which considers their social role and their impact on psychological, cognitive or noetic faculties. (shrink)

ExcerptA series of recent works have explored Hans Blumenberg's metaphorology in its relation to anthropology and the hermeneutics of the lifeworld.1 In what follows, I would like to foreground another aspect of his work by describing the metaphorology and the earlier works on the history of philosophy as works of discourse analysis. From such a perspective, linguistic forms appear less as the expression of anthropological and lifeworld circumstances than as the continuation and transformation of intra-discursive, historical-systematic decisions. I suggest (...) that the functional-anthropological and the discourse-analytical readings of Blumenberg supplement one another insofar as they each give weight to different…. (shrink)

If you don’t feel it you can’t be taught it. Either you can play Schumann or you can’t. Successful performances of Western classical music exhibit both technical mastery and aesthetic insight. While legacies of music teachers have distilled schools of technique and stylistic performance practices, the aesthetic components of interpretation have not received systematic treatment. This may be due to inherent difficulties with teaching aesthetics: musical meaning is hard to express in words, and even demonstrating for students does not (...) guarantee their understanding. Some teachers, like Theodor Leschetizky in the above quote, believe aesthetics cannot truly be taught because it reflects a musician’s personal.. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to contribute to understanding software from a “continental” perspective. I argue that Paul Ricoeur’s philosophical hermeneutics can help in developing a new understanding of the nature of software, thus fueling the philosophical debate on digital technology. The core of the paper is the application of the Ricoeur’s notion of text to software. A hermeneutic understanding of software allows us to explain those aspects of software that escape a strictly technical definition, such as (...) the relationship with the user, the human being, and the social and cultural transformations that software produces, the same way that any text does. The hermeneutic understanding of software considers software as a social and cultural product. (shrink)

Human action has a technical dimension. This book is a hermeneutic and social theoretical interpretation of how acquired capabilities and the means of action together shape the technicity of action. The enactment of individual, group, and institutio.

This carefully crafted volume concludes the series of works that began with Cultural Thematics. Seung's primary aim is to go beyond the malaise of post-New Critical studies and to reinstate the centrality of contextual understanding in the interpretation of the structure and meaning of a text. In his introductory discussion of "Text and Context" the author undermines the claims of the objectivity of a text, textual solipsism and textual agnosticism in a manner that recalls the previous arguments in philosophy concerning (...) our knowledge of the external world. Starting with an analysis of textual indeterminacy, Seung ranges over a variety of relevant conceptions of the interpretation of a text, touching upon the works of E. D. Hirsch, Schleiermacher, Cleanth Brooks, Dilthey, Gadamer, and others. In a fairly technical chapter, "Semantics and Pragmatics," the distinctions between formal semantics and informal pragmatics are clearly discussed. An analysis of the pragmatic use of language leads to detailed and informative discussions of pragmatic norms, pragmatic functions, and the relevance of authorial intention for an understanding of a given text. Simplifying Seung's lucid and disciplined arguments, it is shown that a proper understanding of a text requires a grasp of the holistic culture in which it is presented, as well as an understanding of regnant cultural themes. Enriched by interpretations of the Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, the Aeneid, Dante's Commedia, and other literary works, Seung displays the art of contextual interpretation in accordance with his own principles. Of special interest is the presentation of the importance of textual coherence for significant textual interpretations. The various analyses of the role of thematics in the understanding of literature in historical context lead to sympathetic appraisals of Gadamer's hermeneutic program and a brief defence of Gadamer against the charge of falling into an historicist relativity. Finally, Seung concludes his illuminating study with a sketch of a cultural morphology that resembles, in embryo, Hegel's phenomenology of culture. This is no accident, insofar as Seung presents, in his concluding outline of the interaction of cultural themes, an admitted variation on Hegel's dialectical theme. By even finding a place for the "existential dimension of thematic dialectic," the author manages to negate and preserve the solipsism of the reader and give recognition virtually to every relevant aspect of a complex hermeneutic process.--G. J. Stack, SUNY College at Brockport. (shrink)

Although typically implicit, clinicians face an inherent conflict between their roles as medical healers and as providers of technical biomedicine (Scott et al. in Philos Ethics Humanit Med 4:11, 2009). This conflict arises from the tension between the physicalist model which still predominates in medical training and practice and the extra-physicalist dimensions of medical practice as epitomised in the concept of patient-centred care. More specifically, the problem is that, as grounded in a "borrowed" physicalist philosophy, the dominant "applied scientist" (...) model exhibits a number of limitations which severely restrict its ability to underwrite the effective practice of care. Moreover, being structural in character, these problems cannot be resolved by piecemeal modifications of the existing model, nor by an appeal to evidence-based medicine (Miles in J Eval Clin Pract 15(6):887-890, 2009; Miles in Folia Med 55(1):5-24, 2013; Miles et al. in J Eval Clin Pract 14(5):621-649, 2008). Hence, the need for medical theorists to "partner with experts in the humanities to build a sui generis philosophy of medicine" (Whatley in J Eval Clin Pract 20(6):961-964, 2014, p. 961). In response, the present paper seeks to vindicate the merits of hermeneutically-informed template in providing the requisite grounding. While capable of correcting for the limitations of the applied scientist model, a hermeneutically-informed template is a "both/and" approach, which seeks to complement rather than exclude the physicalist dimension, and thereby aspires to reconcile technical mastery with patient-centred care, rather than eschew one in favour of the other. As such, it can provide a cogent philosophical template for current best practice, which does justice to the art as well as the science of medical care. (shrink)

Introduction. The article analyzes the paradox of modern philosophy and worldview, in which the stated “death of God”, “death of man”, “of author”, “of nature” does not cancel their obvious existence, but in other modes. Topos and functions of classical concepts that define human nature are replaced by objects of information technology activity. The author believes that the technical phenomenon penetrates into modern living processes and partly replaces them. The idea of death and crisis of the transcendental, divine, human (...) and natural is accompanied by their replacement by technical processes, their specific “revival”. In this regard, human nature itself undergoes certain semantic and material transformations due to necessity. The work describes and analyzes these transformations. The purpose of the work is a specific analysis of human nature in modern scientific and technical doctrine. The author proves that the loss of his ontological status by a person, the reduction of a person to the level of things or biological principles lead to strengthening the foundations of biopower, biopolitics and other forms and methods of influencing a person against his free will in the world. Methods. The author uses critical analysis of philosophical theses and ideological statements. The work uses hermeneutic, phenomenological humanitarian techniques and procedures, as well as the method of comparative analysis and historical reconstruction of scientific facts. Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty of the work consists in an attempt to turn the science about man to its foundations, namely, to the foundation of a free, choosing and born in a natural context personality. The novelty of scientific achievements, progressive technologies, technical inventions and new social dispositions does not negate the question of the human nature essence, which is still new and relevant at the present time. (shrink)

Although the positive outcomes achieved in home‐visiting interventions targeting young, disadvantaged mothers are partly credited to therapeutic relationships, researchers rarely offer philosophical or theoretical explanations for these relationships. This omission is a conspicuous oversight as nurse–family relationships have figured prominently in public health nursing practice since its inception. In this study, I suggest that the contribution of therapeutic relationships to positive outcomes will remain theoretically undeveloped as long as clinical trials and nursing practice models follow the logic of techne. After (...) describing how a scientific–clinical gaze misrepresents teen mothers and contributes to a rational–technical model of clinical practice, I draw on contemporary hermeneutics to describe how dialog and understanding are indispensable for clinical judgment and the judicious use of scientific knowledge. This hermeneutic corrective calls attention to the dialogical nature of truth and the relational skills that disclose meaning, preserve personhood, and support possibilities available in the life‐world. Dialogical understanding also disrupts the scientific–clinical gaze by disclosing the social disparities that are implicated in early childbearing and teen mothers’ long‐term prospects. The implications of this thought for legitimating and supporting the flexibility and clinical know‐how that ‘strays’ from protocol‐driven care is addressed. (shrink)

Resumo: As disputas acadêmicas entre, de um lado, as posturas metodologicas da crítica as e da hermenêutica, e, de outro, acerca da divisao e da hierarquia entre ciencias humanas e ciencias naturais, vieram inspirar em meados do século XX uma aposta na crescente influência da interpretação, que implicava até mesmo na preponderância da compreensão sobre a explicação. Este artigo retoma um estudo sobre as "pretensões universalistas da hermenêutica" em três autores: Habermas, Gadamer e Bubner. E, para atualizar o debate, indica (...) a recente teoria lexical de Pustejovsky, como sintoma da permanência do velho problema do combate à ambiguidade.: The academic disputes in the last two centuries concerning methodological approaches and the division between natural and human sciences have lately inspired the belief that hermeneutics could be accepted as a universal reference, since comprehension should overlap explanation. Among recent philosophers, such as Gadamer and Habermas, this debate opposes hermeneutics and critical theory. From the technical and even industrial requirements of our days, the old problem of ambiguity and misunderstanding is now a task for machines: computers should learn how to search words [including “key-words”] and translate texts. This new situation should bring philosophy back to philosophical hermeneutics – but certainly without the previous universalizing intentions. (shrink)

Nos interesa analizar las claves que la hermenéutica de Ricoeur arroja en el campo de la ética para hacer frente a los dilemas que enfrenta el hombre en su modo de habitar en el mundo, como fruto de la transformación científico-técnica de la acción. El examen intenta hacer fructíferos los aportes del filósofo focalizando algunos cambios esenciales a nivel de las variables espacio-temporales, las cuales expresan de manera ejemplar el nuevo escenario humano. Bajo la dirección de la ética de la (...) solicitud desarrollada por Ricoeur en Sí mismo como otro, nos proponemos mostrar los cauces creativos de la acción que, basados en la interpretación de las capacidades del hombre, abren salidas posibles para hacer frente a su ser expuesto al padecimiento ante los conflictos inevitables de su tiempo. We are interested in analyzing the key insights of Ricoeur's hermeneutics for ethics, to confront the dilemmas faced by human beings when inhabiting the world, as a result of the scientific-technical transformation of action. The survey seeks to underline Ricoeur's contribution focusing on certain key changes in the spatial-temporal variables, which depict the new human scenery. Starting from the éthique de la sollicitude developed by Ricoeur in Oneself as Another, we aim at showing the creative strands of action that, based on the interpretation of man's capacities, open possible ways to confront his own being in the face of the inevitable conflicts of his time. (shrink)

Para Heidegger, a filosofia até então fora metafísica e enquanto tal chega a seu acabamento na era tecnológica, ou seja, a modernidade atinge seu auge com a inauguração da autonomia das ciências particulares pela linguagem cibernética. O filósofo chama a atenção para um pensamento capaz de pensar além da metafisica e da essência da técnica que tem dominado a compreensão do habitar humano no mundo. Redescobrir um pensar que não seja nem metafísico nem técnico é o que Heidegger chama de (...) a tarefa do pensamento. Vejamos que tanto a metafísica quanto a técnica estão acentuadas em um mesmo fundamento, consequentemente em uma mesma noção de verdade, a verdade enquanto concordância, enunciativa e enquanto ente. Nesta concepção de verdade também a filosofia habita enquanto metafísica, por isso na tarefa do pensamento a filosofia deve superar-se e buscar uma nova compreensão para o que é verdadeiro, deve ir às origens do pensamento grego e resgatar o significado de alétheia, desvelamento. Pensar é desvelar o que está velado. A tarefa do pensamento passa a ser encaminhada à hermenêutica, não por mera arbitrariedade, mas sim pela própria necessidade de se pensar originariamente. Só a hermenêutica pode ainda pensar o que é digno de ser pensado, o que ainda não foi alcançado pelo pensamento metafísico e pelo enquadramento técnico que move a habitação do homem no mundo, pois é a abertura que possibilita todo apresentar-se, essa abertura é a clareira do Ser.: For Heidegger philosophy had been hitherto metaphysics and it reaches its finishing process in the technological era, i.e., modernity reaches its peak with the unveiling of the autonomy of the special sciences through cyber language. The philosopher draws attention to a thought able of thinking beyond metaphysics and the essence of the technique that has dominated the understanding of human dwelling in the world. Rediscover a thinking that is neither metaphysical nor technique is what Heidegger calls the task of thought. Considering that both metaphysics and technique are pronounced in the same basis, thus in the same notion of truth, the truth as agreement, expository and as beings. In this conception of truth philosophy inhabits as metaphysical as well as. For this reason, in the task of thought, philosophy should surpass itself and seek a new understanding for what is true, it shall go to the origins of Greek thought and redeem the meaning of aletheia, unveiling. Thinking is to unveil what is veiled. The task of thought becomes forwarded to hermeneutics, not for mere arbitrariness, rather for the need of thinking originally. Only hermeneutics might still think what is worthy of being thought, what has not yet been reached by metaphysical thought and by the technical framework that moves the habitation of man in the world, then it is the opening that allows all “coming forwards”, this opening is the clearing of Being. Keywords: Philosophy. Metaphysics. Technique. Hermeneutics. Modernity. (shrink)

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to attempt to investigate how Information and Communications Technology researchers in UK computing departments address ethics in their research. Whilst research and innovation in ICT has blossomed in the last two decades, the ethical, social and legal challenges they present have also increased. However, the increasing attention the technical development receives has not been replicated in the area of developing effective guidelines that can address the moral issues inherent in ICT research.Design/methodology/approach– This (...) research is qualitative and made use of interviews. The data analysis was done with dialectical hermeneutics. Through a dialectical hermeneutic process, this research unpacks different understandings of relevance attached to ethics reviews of ICT research in UK computing departments.Findings– The findings include that ethics reviews are relevant because; it is a moral duty, it improves trust for researchers, it is part of risk assessment, it is in compliance with the law and it is a sustainable act.Practical implications– These various understandings illustrate an important dialectic process on the current state of the art in ICT research.Social implications– It asks to what degree the currently dominant model of ethics review based on biomedical ethics is optimal to ICT.Originality/value– It proposes a framework that can effectively help researchers and administrators to ensure responsible research and innovation in ICT. Finally, it identifies that ICT researchers would benefit from the developing repertoire of responsible research innovation. (shrink)

A reflexão de Hans-Georg Gadamer sobre a hermenêutica filosófica como filosofia prática pretende afirmar um aspecto essencial de seu pensamento, a saber, o traço eminentemente prático. Tal esfera prática encontra-se fundamentalmente ligada a uma tarefa, a defesa da razão prática em detrimento ao domínio da razão técnico-científica, assumida por Gadamer a partir da publicação da obra “A Razão na Época da Ciência”. Assim, neste presente artigo pretendemos discutir a relação entre a noção de razão que, na perspectiva de Gadamer, deve (...) ser compatível com as demandas atuais frente ao domínio da tecno-ciência.: Gadamer’s reflection on philosophical hermeneutics as practical philosophy intends to claim an essential aspect of his thought: the trace eminently practical. Such practical sphere is fundamentally linked to a philosophical task: the defense of practical reason against to technical-scientific reason, question assumed by Gadamer from the publication of “Reason in the Age of Science”. Thus, in this present article we seek to discuss the relation between a notion of reason that, for Gadamer, must be compatible with the current demands opposite to the domination of techno-science. Keywords: Gadamer, practical reason, hermeneutics, technics. (shrink)

There seems to be an overall agreement that parents qua parents are, almost by definition, in need of support and hence that there is always a ‘parental deficit’. In order to help parents out many initiatives are taken, predominantly drawing from a technical conception of parenting. This particular conception defines the deficit as a shortage of practical and theoretical knowledge, and conceives of the predicament of parenting or upbringing as something that can be successfully dealt with. Two criticisms are (...) developed in this article. First, this conception of parenting is exposed as a ‘frictionless fiction’ that makes a very strong appeal to many of us, inhabitants of late modern Western societies, perhaps because it promises answers where there are none to be given. Second, a different conception of the parental deficit is developed following Ramaekers and Suissa who spelled out a parental hermeneutical-existential deficit drawing upon Cavell. This specific kind of deficit picks out another kind of support. I develop this alternative by sketching a figure of strong engagement that provides parent support. (shrink)

The often-emphasized tension between the singularity of the patient and technical–scientific reproducibility in medicine cannot be resolved without a discussion of the epistemological and methodological status of the human sciences. On the one hand, the rules concerning human action are analogous to the scientific laws of nature. They are de facto sufficiently stable to allow predictions and explanations similar to those of experimental sciences. From this point of view, it is only a trivial truth, but still a methodological irrelevancy, that (...) the patient and the doctor–patient relationship represent an ontologically irreproducible reality. On the other hand, however, one can never exclude that one can fail in the application of "laws" of the human sciences to the individual patient, for such laws are by no means wholly separated from a patient's personal-hermeneutic mediation, and can at any time be revoked by becoming aware of them. This requires a synergistic collaboration of clinical and statistical methods, and shows a methodologically relevant sense in which one cannot disregard the singularity of the patient. The reason for the crucial role of the patient's singularity in medicine is every individual patient's capacity to revoke, in principle, routines and quasi-automatisms, even though the personal mediation by the patient's consciousness de facto changes them in such a small degree that predictions and explanations modeled in experimental science remain possible. (shrink)

Proceedings of the First Conference of the International Society for Hermeneutics and Science.