Volume 18, No. 2, Fall 2023

FORTHCOMING

Phenomenology and Transcendence

Gadamer on Humanism, Solidarity, Phronesis, and Phenomenology
Robert J. Dostal | Bryn Mawr College

In this essay I describe some of the circumstances that guided me in writing the book Gadamer's Hermeneutics: Between Phenomenology and Dialectic and I respond to critiques offered by four reviewers. The critics raise issues about Gadamer's humanism, his treatment of solidarity, the centrality of phronesis for his work, and his relation to the phenomenological movement.

Keywords: Gadamer, Hans-Georg; phenomenology; hermeneutics; humanism; essentialism; solidarity; conversation; ontology.

Understanding in Tension: Language, Intuition, and the Meaning of Humanism
Theodore D. George | Texas A&M University

It is a mainstay of Gadamerian hermeneutics that the achievement of understanding is mediated by language—a claim that, per Dostal, allows Gadamer’s approach to be grasped as a matter of dialectic. Yet, as Dostal argues, Gadamer’s hermeneutics is also meant to remain based in the concern of classical Husserlian phenomenology, namely to return to the things themselves, die Sachen selbst, as they are given directly through intuition, or noesis. This article aims to examine Dostal’s position. It is thereby focusing, in particular, on the consequences of his approach for Gadamer’s conceptions of humanism, education (Bildung), and some important aspects of Gadamer’s relation to Heidegger.

Keywords: Gadamer, Hans-Georg; Heidegger, Martin; language; intuition; Sache; Humanism; Education; Bildung.

Dialogic Solidarity
Georgia Warnke | University of California, Riverside

Robert Dostal's Gadamer's Hermeneutics illuminates three important aspects of Hans-Georg Gadamer's remarks on solidarity: it is part of his critique of subjectivism; it is not based on shared identities; and it is connected to dialogue and conversation. This review discusses and expands on Dostal's account. Whereas Dostal claims that conversation for Gadamer can bond participants into a common view that makes both friendship and solidarity possible; I claim that for Gadamer solidarity just is conversation, a commitment to discuss issues together in a sincere search for their solution.

Keywords: Dostal, Robert; Gadamer, Hans-Georg; Rorty, Richard; solidarity; conversation; identity; technology.

Robert Dostal, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and the Challenge of Phenomenology
David Vessey | Grand Valley State University

A central theme of Robert Dostal's book is Hans-Georg Gadamer's relation to classical phenomenology; where a key concern is that Gadamer cannot answer, in Dostal's words, "the Phenomenological Challenge"—that is, the hermeneutics fails to appreciate the philosophical significance of one's direct contact with the world. Dostal tries to answer this challenge by showing the places where Gadamer speaks of a pre-linguistic, immediate contact with the world. I argue that one should embrace Gadamer's proximity to John McDowell's views and draw upon them in order to clarify Gadamer's criticisms of classical phenomenology and to show how they do not leave him susceptible to the phenomenology challenge.

Keywords: Ricoeur, Paul; Husserl, Edmund; Scheler, Max; McDowell, John; phenomenology; hermeneutics; linguistic idealism.

The Good Life in Dostal's Gadamer Interpretation
Mirela Oliva | University of St. Thomas, Houston

What is the good life for Hans-Georg Gadamer? Robert Dostal shows that Gadamer follows Aristotle and weaves the practical and theoretical life. In Dostal's view, Gadamer puts the practical life at the center of his version of the Aristotelian paradigm. In this paper, I discuss Dostal's analysis of the priority of the practical life, by showing that, for Dostal, this priority is motivated by Gadamer's rejection of modern subjectivism. I am also arguing that in Dostal's reading, phronesis (practical reason) bridges life's theoretical and practical aspects, and constitutes the basis of hermeneutic understanding.

Keywords: Aristotle; phronesis; Enlightenment; Gadamer, Hans-Georg; hermeneutic understanding; practical life; theoretical life.

What is Anti-Hermeneutics? Jaspers, Gadamer, and the COVID-19 Hermeneutic Crisis
Alexander Crist | Pensacola State College

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought forth a crisis in rational public discourse and trust in authoritative institutions. Given its many issues related to language, communication, and solidarity, this crisis can be considered a hermeneutic crisis. This essay turns to Karl Jaspers' lecture series, Reason and Anti-Reason in our Time, and to several works from Hans-Georg Gadamer, in order to develop a diagnostic concept of anti-hermeneutics. While Gadamer often discusses what it means to live hermeneutically, he rarely offers an explicit account of what it would mean to live anti-hermeneutically, namely, in a way that resists cultivating and acting from basic hermeneutic virtues. Jaspers' notion of anti-reason (Widervernunft) offers a model for thinking about what anti-hermeneutics would look like in Gadamer's hermeneutic project. Ultimately, the concept of anti-hermeneutics contributes to diagnosing the contemporary hermeneutic crisis as it has emerged over the last few years since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: solidarity; language; conversation; practical reason; anti-reason; infodemic; misinformation; censorship; pandemic.

Resistance and Poetry
Otto Doerr-Zegers | University of Chile and Diego Portales University, Santiago, Chile

Written on the 80th anniversary of the attempt on Hitler's life on July 20th, 1944, this essay brings an inside view of some of the circumstances surrounding the planning and execution of the coup. It describes what some would describe a hero's journey, the action of Count Claus von Stauffenberg whose inspiration to act was nurtured by his sense of moral obligation and humanism, and the milieu of the resistance movement.

Keywords: German Resistance; von Stauffenberg, Claus; Hitler, Adolf; Tellenbach, Hubertus; George, Stefan; assassination; war; politics.

Transcending Tribalism
Hugh F. Kelly | Brooklyn, New York

Tribalism is perhaps the most salient feature of the contemporary social landscape in the United States, affecting the American sense of community, sense of self, and even sense of truth. Political factionalism dates back to the United States' earliest days, even warranting a warning from George Washington against political factions. Often, our divisions stem from competing understandings of what liberty and freedom mean, disagreements which already surfaced in the colonial era. Karl Jaspers and Hannah Arendt both challenge one to think and act beyond a simplified binary either/or discourse in politics, drawing upon their personal experiences in twentieth-century National Socialist Europe, and Arendt's witnessing of racism in the United States. Rather than accepting a kind of tribalism which insists on dominance regarding one's views, their writings present a challenge to transcend this tendency. Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural address crystallizes such a transcending political vision. I argue that these historical examples still have value today.

Keywords: Arendt, Hannah; Jaspers, Karl; Lincoln, Abraham; Fischer, David Hackett; liberty; factionalism; transcendence; post-truth; politics; race; National Socialist era.

Transcendence and Existential Solidarity as Antidotes to Political Rupture
Jörn W. Kroll | Petaluma, California

This essay explores the veiled yet probable cause of the current political crisis in the United States of America. Jaspers' fundamental distinction between existence (Dasein) and Existenz provides the main conceptual tool for this inquiry, which is guided by the question: How can a lived experience of transcendence elevate society and politics to a level of human interaction that is aligned with and mirrors Existenz? Existence (Dasein) and Existenz are diametrically opposed modes of being in the world. Each mode of world orientation tends to predetermine the purposes of everyday living and the character and depth of interpersonal relations and communication. Existenz, the lived experience of transcendence, has intrinsic value. Additionally, Existenz naturally supports making consciousness flexible and undermines the identifications with ideologies or fixed beliefs. As a result, bitter political hostility may transform into respectful and principled political contest. Jaspers sketches a possible scenario without making any predictions for its realization.

Keywords: Existenz; existence (Dasein); experience of suspension; loosening of consciousness; relaxation of identifications; political behavior; genuine communication; loving struggle