Philosophical Hermeneutics

Après avoir raconté en quelques lignes ce qui m'a conduite à utiliser le récit en psychothérapeute, je trace l'histoire de ma pratique clinique ici en Belgique en consultation individuelle, ensuite en clinique humanitaire au Rwanda. Nous verrons que les défis auxquels j'eus à faire face furent bien différents. Les concepts d'idem et d'ipse sont mobilisés afin de les faire comprendre du point de vue de la philosophie de Paul Ricoeur : tendance au recouvrement de l'ipséité par l'idem dans les deux cas mais à l'instant du vécu dans le premier et au moment de la tentative de remémoration dans le second. L'évènement s'impose alors sous forme de rappel, ce qui rend sa symbolisation par le récit hasardeuse.

Rooted in the ancient tradition of interpretation (exegesis) and the core principle of "understanding of understanding," Hermeneutics extends into the political realm to achieve a deeper and more comprehensive understanding. Political Hermeneutics serves as an essential approach for understanding and interpreting political phenomena such as texts, discourse, actions, and events. Its development was driven by key philosophers like Hans-Georg Gadamer, who emphasized the role of tradition and prejudice, Paul Ricoeur, who focused on human action and symbols, and Jürgen Habermas, with his theory of communicative action. Political Hermeneutics is widely applied in political discourse analysis, social movement studies, and public policy analysis. Despite facing criticisms regarding its subjectivity, potential for relativism, and lack of focus on power structures, hermeneutics remains vital for providing critical and reflective insight into political life participation. By bridging the gap between historical and modern contexts, Political Hermeneutics encourages a more critical interpretation of contemporary political reality.


Berakar dari tradisi penafsiran kuno (eksegesis) dan prinsip inti "memahami pemahaman" (understanding of understanding), Hermeneutika meluas ke ranah politik agar mencapai pemahaman  lebih mendalam dan komprehensif. Hermeneutika Politik sebagai pendekatan esensial untuk memahami dan menafsirkan fenomena-fenomena politik, seperti teks, wacana, tindakan, dan peristiwa. Perkembangannya dipicu oleh filsuf-filsuf kunci seperti Hans-Georg Gadamer yang menekankan peran tradisi dan prasangka, Paul Ricoeur yang fokus pada tindakan manusia dan simbol, serta Jürgen Habermas dengan teori tindakan komunikatifnya. Hermeneutika Politik diterapkan secara luas dalam analisis wacana politik, studi gerakan sosial, dan analisa kebijakan publik. Meskipun dihadapkan pada kritik mengenai subjektivitas dan berpotensi relativistik dan kurangnya fokus pada struktur kekuasaan, hermeneutika tetap memberikan wawasan kritis dan reflektif yang vital pada partisipasi kehidupan politik. Dengan menjembatani kesenjangan antara konteks historis dan modern, Hermeneutika Politik mendorong interpretasi lebih kritis terhadap realitas politik kontemporer.

מאמר זה מציג את פרק המועדים מתוך החיבור "פניני הסודות המיוסדים על דברי הנביאים" המיוחס לרבי סעדיה אלעדני. הפרק פורש משנה פילוסופית-רוחנית הרואה במועדי ישראל סמלים להתעלות נפשית ורוחנית. הסוכה מסמלת את היותנו תחת צל רחמי האל המגן מפני דחפי החומר, הפסח מהווה תזכורת לשחרור משעבוד התאוות, פורים משקף מערכת סמלים של הקשר בין השכל (מרדכי) והנפש (אסתר) בדרך אל ההתקרבות לאלוהות, וראש השנה ויום הכיפורים מייצגים שלבים בהתעלות הרוחנית של האדם. החיבור, המחקה את סגנונו של הרמב"ם ב"מורה הנבוכים", מגלה רובד עמוק בהבנת המועדים מעבר לפשט ההלכתי, ומציג אותם ככלים להתפתחות נפשית-רוחנית.

This article proposes an ontological approach to the distinction between truth and falsehood, shifting the debate from moral and epistemic registers to the material plane of language. Drawing on a critical reading of metaphysical traditions-from Plato to Kant-and their contemporary crisis, the text argues that truth is not a static property but a degree of exposure to the real, measured by the symbolic reorganization that occurs in response to friction. Falsehood, in turn, is treated as a structural possibility of language, characterized by the suspension of proof and temporal economy. The distinction between truth and fiction is explored through its temporal, ethical, and political dimensions, engaging with the Ontology of Emerging Complexity, pragmatist philosophy, and critiques of symbolic acceleration. The article defends that to think today is to inhabit friction, resist performative efficacy, and cultivate institutions capable of sustaining the duration required for proof.

My title riffs on the title of a lecture on The Wisdom Movement and Israel's Covenant Faith by David allan hubbard and on two sentences in it, "proverbs seems to say, 'here are the rules for life; try them and find that they will work.' Job and ecclesiastes say, 'We did, and they don't'". 1 proverbs is close enough to Israel's covenant faith to use the name Yahweh for God, and its assumptions about rules resemble those of the covenant that we are to consider. I use the word "covenant" to denote a formally sealed commitment between two parties. But it is a tricky word. In British english it can denote a one-sided commitment; people "covenant" their charitable giving, whereas in US english they "pledge" it. and US english uses covenant more in political contexts; the word has complex political and cultural connotations. In Bible translations, covenant usually renders the hebrew word "bərît", but bərît can also be translated by words such as treaty, contract, pledge, or obligation, and can denote a two-way relationship or a onesided one. In the Septuagint, diathēkē is the usual translation of bərît, though translators occasionally use sunthēkē in passages suggesting an agreement between two parties; the New testament regularly uses diathēkē. the Vulgate usually uses foedus but sometimes words such as "pax" or "amicitia". a further complication (or perhaps a simplification) is that both the testaments see the relationship between God and his people as covenantal in the sense of involving a definite ongoing commitment between the two parties, even where the words "bərît" or "diathēkē" do not occur. the framework of thinking implied by the word "theodicy" is a modern one that has become prominent in Old testament study only in recent decades. 2 While it can obscure an understanding of the Old testament, it can also illumine it. Differences between a modern and an Old testament worldview can give modern readers some insight on the culture-relative nature of our framework. theodicy is an aspect of our mental horizon 1

Preprint of article published in Encyclopedia of Phenomenology, ed. Nicolas de Warren and Ted Toadvine (Cham: Springer, 2025), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47253-5_113-1.

Dasein is the German term for concrete existence in general. In phenomenology, it is best known as the key term of Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time (1927), where it specifically designates the existential, factical, and situated “being-there” of the concrete and individual human being, as opposed to the Husserlian understanding of transcendental subjectivity. In Heidegger’s fundamental ontology, the existential analytic of Dasein as dynamic and finite being-in-the-world and care aims to elaborate the fundamentally temporal structure of Dasein’s existence; this was to serve as a pathway to articulating the temporal structure of meaningful being in general. In Heidegger’s later thought, the focus is on the Da, the “there” of Dasein as the situated and singular locus, site, or place for the event (Ereignis) of being. The Heideggerian Dasein has been a particularly influential concept within existential philosophy and existential psychology, and has also had repercussions in political theory.

María Gabriela Ábalos 1 Municipios y descentralización del poder: autonomía e integración 19 i. Mendoza y el régimen municipal frente a la reforma de 1994 19 ii. Mendoza y el poder constituyente provincial 21 iii. El municipio en el constitucionalismo mendocino 23 iv. Municipios y comunas en Mendoza: propuesta de autonomía e integración asociativa local 26 v. Consideraciones finales 29 Bibliografía 32 Víctor Abramovich 2 Derechos y garantías en la futura Constitución mendocina 35 Silvina Barón Knoll 3 El diseño constitucional del poder y la Suprema Corte de Justicia en la futura Constitución de Mendoza 49 i. Consideraciones previas 49 ii. Algunas precisiones en torno a la división de poderes y el «juego» de los controles 51 iii. El Poder Judicial en Mendoza. La Suprema Corte de Justicia 56 a. Composición 58 b. Requisitos 59 ¿Qué proponemos? 60 c. Denominación 64 iv. Atribuciones 65 a. Función jurisdiccional 65 b. Función de gobierno y superintendencia 68 v. Reflexión final 70 ¿Cuál es el camino?: ¿Reforma total o reforma parcial? 70 Bibliografía 73 Mauro Benente 4 Constitucionalismo, poder económico y racionalidad social de los derechos 75 i. Constitución y gobierno 75 ii. Constitucionalismo y poder económico 77 a. Los casos de Ecuador y Bolivia 77 b. El poder económico en las reformas constitucionales en Argentina 80 iii. Racionalidad social de los derechos y litigio estructural 82 a. Más allá de la exigibilidad de los DESC. Hacia una racionalidad social de los derechos 82 b. Racionalidad social y litigio estructural 84 iv. Notas finales 85 Bibliografía 86 Gustavo Castiñeira de Dios 5 Reforma constitucional de la Provincia de Mendoza. Propuestas para el Poder Legislativo 89 i. Introducción. Alcance y sentido de la democracia 89 a. Democracia como forma de gobierno 92 b. Democracia como forma de Estado 94 c. Democracia como régimen o sistema político 95 ii. Democracia directa y democracia representativa 101 a. Generalidades 101 b. Democracia directa 102 c. Democracia representativa o indirecta 103 iii. Reforma constitucional. Poder Legislativo 107 a. Presupuestos 107 b. Propuestas 107 Representación territorial 107 c. Renovación 109 d. Composición 111 e. Modificar el sistema territorial de representación de senadores y su duración 112 Propuesta 112 f. Modificar la base poblacional de diputados (igualitaria) 112 Bibliografía 114 Carlos Ignacio Giuffré 6 En defensa de un procedimiento deliberativo y democrático de reforma constitucional para Mendoza 117 i. Introducción 117 ii. Sistemas de reforma constitucional rígidos y contramayoritarios 118 iii. Sistemas flexibles y democráticos 122 iv. Análisis de los dos procedimientos desde la teoría del discurso 124 v.

Resumen Entre los comentaristas y estudiosos de Platón existe un acuerdo más o menos amplio de que la pregunta filosófica principal de los diálogos socráticos es qué es x. La presente propuesta tiene como objetivo revisar el supuesto de que la pregunta principal de los diálogos socráticos es qué es x, enmarcando la pregunta dentro del contexto dramático de cada diálogo, la retórica en juego y el intercambio interpersonal. En cada caso propongo que la pregunta por el qué se fuerza como una pregunta cuya orientación proposicional fracasa en el curso del diálogo, lo que termina por demostrar la debilidad del discurso frente a la posesión de la virtud.

In this essay we attempt a redefining of the phenomenological method as this has been developed mainly through three ''reductions'' 1 represented by three thinkers whose work advanced phenomenological research in novel ways: Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Jean-Luc Marion. Our rehearsal of the phenomenological tradition aims at formulating a set of controversial questions: Is it, perhaps, time for a fourth reduction that would better serve the sensibilities of the so-called phenomenology of the apparent? And if so, what might be its guiding principles, its ways of operating, its scope and aim? Such a fourth reduction, we believe, would not seek to overcome or discard the preceding movements of reduction; rather, it would strive to complete them by rehearsing, retrieving, and repeating them. In some sense, a fourth reduction could be a corrective recapitulation of the transcendent, ontological, and dosological reductions. In the following pages we will try to flesh out what the basic principles of a fourth reduction might be by clarifying further the definition of the prosopon and its pertinence for a phenomenology of the experience of God. Husserl's transcendental reduction called for a return ''to the things themselves,'' where consciousness refocuses on the phenomena as they appear in themselves and by themselves (eidetically), cutting through, as it were, the layers of preassigned signification that common usage has accumulated over them.

Esta antología recoge los artículos más valiosos aparecidos desde 1925 sobre la polémica acerca de la neutralidad de los juicios de valor, ya se refieran a las conclusiones científicas en general, a las ciencias sociales en especial, tal y como se desarrolló en la década de los años 50 y 60. Se recogen artículos de Geiger,

Linguistic studies from discursive perspective emphasize the concept of semantic autonomy and deny the realist notion of language. They argue that knowledge of social meaning and the effects of language are important to understanding a text. For Michel Pêcheux, in a speech, the meaning of word scan be explained by the interrelationship between words, more specifically, by the words that were not said. Meaning is thought of as symbolic, neither fixed nor exact. But Eric Donald Hirsch argued that the text means what its author meant, and therefore the reader's aim is to retrieve the author's intended meaning. Only authorial intent can validate an interpretation. From the set who diverging points of view, some questions emerged, such as, for example, is language a neutral means of reflecting the world? Is a meaning by public consensus possible? Is textual meaning a matter of conscience or words? And more, can the reader benefit from an interpretive perspective that goes beyond the grammatical boundary? These are the questions that this work intends to explore.

O objetivo desse texto e discutir a importância de uma reflexao sobre o saber cientifico entre as ciencias humanas, especialmente no campo da Historia. Partimos da postura critica de alguns pensadores no que se refere ao cientificismo, ou a chamada racionalidade Moderna, para observar propostas a uma ciencia que extrapole os metodos estabelecidos e consiga no minimo estreitar a distância entre a ciencia e a experiencia do existir. Alem disso, pretende-se discutir o papel da Historia enquanto ciencia hoje e pensa-la para alem de um mero discurso acessivel a uns poucos eleitos. Nesse sentido, propomos ainda uma reflexao sobre a hermeneutica exibindo um panorama historico desse subcampo da filosofia que, a partir de Heidegger, tem na experiencia um principio ontologico, observando suas contribuicoes para a producao e compreensao do conhecimento historico. Palavras-chave:  Historia; hermeneutica; historicidade.

This article questions the consistency, reasonableness, and fruitfulness of the methodological proposals and conception of anthropological knowledge associated with the "ontological turn" in anthropology. Taking as its starting point the manifesto-book by M. Holbraad and M. A. Pedersen, I seek to show that the ontological turn remains bound to problematic assumptions that the discipline often chooses not to examine critically and that do not withstand the pragmatic maxim. I argue that the ontological turn, as a methodological device, does not bring about the effective and consequential transformation of anthropological modes of enquiry that it genetically seeks; and that, if such transformation is the goal, one must take paths opened by the phenomenology and hermeneutics of M. Heidegger and H.-G. Gadamer-paths its authors avoid.

The discovery and publication of Chu bamboo manuscripts have significantly
enriched our understanding of early Chinese writing materials while offering new
perspectives on the relationship between writing and authority. These manuscripts—
encompassing divination records, ritual texts, administrative and legal documents,
and pre-Qin classics—serve as tangible manifestations of the political, religious, and
philosophical dimensions of the Chu state. As material artifacts, they demonstrate how
writing played a critical role in legitimizing authority and shaping cultural identity.
Despite their significance, scholarly engagement with the interplay between writing culture and authority remains limited, underscoring the need for further exploration.
The majority of Chu slips date to the middle and late Warring States period (475–221
BCE) and represent some of the earliest surviving bamboo manuscripts. Among the
most significant discoveries are the Guodian Chu slips, unearthed in October 1993
from Tomb No. 1 in Guodian Village, Jingmen, Hubei Province. This remarkable find
yielded 731 bamboo slips, including 18 pre-Qin texts, comprising early Daoist works,
such as Laozi A, B, and C, as well as Confucian texts like Black Robe, The Duke Mu of Lu
Enquired of Zisi, and The Five Elements. These texts reflect the coexistence and integration of Daoist and Confucian thought in Chu, highlighting its intellectual pluralism and
cultural adaptability. Writing, as embodied in these slips, functioned as a mechanism for
transmitting and institutionalizing ideologies attributed to figures like Laozi (fl. 6th C
BCE) and Zisi (483 BCE–402 BCE).
Expanding on Mark Edward Lewis’s seminal work Writing and Authority in Early
China (1999), this article examines how the Guodian Chu manuscripts illustrate the intersection of writing and authority by intertwining the physical and ideological. These
slips reveal how the tangible qualities of writing materials—such as durability, craftsmanship, and aesthetic refinement—elevated the symbolic power of texts and reinforced
cultural transmission, transforming them into authoritative objects that perpetuated
intellectual influence beyond their owner’s lifetime.

Following Part I, this essay (Part II) continues my attempt to develop an ontology of peace by drawing resources from Ricoeur’s thought. I begin with Augustine, Dionysius, and Aquinas to show that peace is not contrary to our humanity but is a natural desire that runs with the grain of our being. This account is complicated by the category of the irascible, however, which Ricoeur interprets as an appetite for difficulty, suggesting the human desire for peace is not directly continuous with the simple animal desire for rest and repose. Instead, there is a fundamental conflict at the heart of human being, which Ricoeur identifies as thumos. I argue that thumos is not opposed to peace, but instead plays the essential role of mobilizing peace, just as it mobilizes other virtues like courage, moderation, and justice. Moreover, the right ordering of thumos does not eliminate the constitutive conflict of the self; right ordering is right conflict, with the right proportion of the disproportion of finite and infinite. As a result, this essay deepens our understanding of peace as more than rest and repose, and
in turn also deepens our understanding of what rest is—in faith and hope as the finely tuned affective tension that makes up the self.

This paper proposes a comprehensive ontological model of art based on three fundamental levels: Being, Human Being, and Phenomenon. Within this framework, the full cycle “Author — Work — Audience” is articulated, allowing us to distinguish between creative works and true works of art. The model introduces the notion of double mastery (conceptual and realizational) as the objective condition for a creative work to become a work of art. The process culminates in the verification function of the audience, which either confirms or rejects the artistic status of a work. This framework provides a universal analytical tool, applicable to different disciplines and historical contexts, for the identification and analysis of the artistic phenomenon.

Настоящий труд предлагает онтологическую модель искусства, основанную на трёх уровнях: Бытие, Человеческое Бытие и Феномен. В её рамках раскрывается полный цикл «Автор — Произведение — Аудитория» и формулируются проверяемые критерии, позволяющие отличить творческое произведение от произведения искусства.
Цель исследования — создание универсального инструмента для объективной идентификации и аналитического описания художественного феномена, что особенно актуально в условиях расширения современного культурного поля и возросшего запроса на надёжные критерии экспертной оценки.

In the Anthropocene, ecological degradation is a lived crisis threatening human and nonhuman futures alike. The anthropocentric arrogance that shaped modernity-industrial extraction, techno-capitalist expansion, and consumerist excess-has destabilized the biosphere to the cusp of ecocide. Superficial "green" reforms remain inadequate. A radical realignment of consciousness is required: a shift from anthropocentrism to ecocentrism. Arne Naess's ecosophy (deep ecology) offers such a reorientation by affirming the intrinsic value of all beings and locating ethics in self-realization through identification with nature. In literature, Amitav Ghosh has emerged as a leading voice of ecological imagination. From the unstable ecologies of the Sundarbans in The Hungry Tide to the planetary anxieties of The Great Derangement and Gun Island, Ghosh dramatizes entanglements of human and nonhuman destinies. His fiction critiques the hubris Naess challenges philosophically while modeling narrative strategies that reimagine interdependence, biodiversity, and ecological memory. This paper situates Naess and Ghosh within a Gandhian lineage of non-violence and inter-being. It argues that Naess provides a conceptual architecture for an ecocentric worldview, while Ghosh embodies that worldview through narrative, myth, and storytelling. Read together, they illuminate pathways for healing the fractured bond between humans and the more-than-human world.

Texto escrito em 2017, após minha participação num dos encontros anuais do grupo de pesquisa “Linguagem e Cognição” (Filosofia/UFAL). O texto é apenas uma conversa inicial sobre como um olhar filosófico sobre a tradução pode ensejar uma reflexão ontológica e também antropológica sobre a natureza da compreensão humana.

This work identifies a recurring element in Paul Ricœur1s thought, namely that of carrying out a hermeneutic graftin specialized areas of knowledge that deal with certain philosophical problems, which will be demonstrated in the following topics, where they will be presented: i) the phenomenological investigation into the privileged access to the cogito, in The Conflict of Interpretations — Essays in Hermeneutics; ii) the epistemological and ontological problems of access to the historical past, as well as the relationship between historiography and fictional literature, in Time and Narrative; iii) the question of personal identity in the analytical tradition of the philosophy of language, in Oneself as Another; iv) finally, the limits of the naturalistic approaches of neurosciences and cognitive sciences on memory in Memory,  History,  Forgetting  and What  makes  us  think?.  The  philosopher,  in  The  Conflict  of  Interpretations,  openly  claims to promote a grafting of the hermeneutic problem into the phenomenological method in his investigation into the understanding of oneself based on the conflict between rival interpretations concerning the cogito. Jean Greisch, in turn, suggests the existence of a graft not assumed by Ricœur of hermeneutics in the philosophy of language in Oneself as Another. Along the same path, this work offers as a novelty the encounter of two other tacit hermeneutic graftsin Ricœur’s work, namely the hermeneutic graft in the phenomenology of time in Time and Narrative and in the naturalized treatment of memory by neurosciences in Memory, History, Forgetting and What makes us think?.

In this paper, I argue that the Delphic passage from Plato's Apology of Socrates (21a-c) can be interpreted in a pre-judicative manner. More exactly, I attempt to show that in Socrates' encounter with the god's words one can find the manifestation of a de-constitutive experience. At a higher level, through this interpretation, I attempt to point out some of the aims of a prejudicative hermeneutics. Therefore, the paper has two main parts: (i) a line by line commentary on the Delphic passage through the lens of the pre-judicative hermeneutics, and (ii) some theoretical considerations about the pre-judicative hermeneutics through a seesaw movement relating to the interpretation of the Delphic passage.

This thesis examines the philosophical problem of narrative as a meaningful way of interpreting and understanding human reality. Philosophical hermeneutic approaches guide the inquiry, drawing from the work of Paul Ricoeur and Hans-Georg Gadamer. The central questions addressed are threefold. First, how do narratives, whether historical or fictional, account for human experiences across time? Second, how does narrative become a vehicle for understanding and self-understanding, crossing temporal and situational boundaries? Third, how can experiences of hesitation, as illustrated by the Rich Young Man in Mark's Gospel, be read as a mode for probing self-transformation

What do words mean and do you share that meaning with the user of the words? That problem is is entrance to a variety of philosophical questions about both meaning and consciousness. The essay also investigates the ideas of Owen Barfield and is a review of a book by Ron Smitherman: "Philosophy and the Evolution of Consciousness.

Az utóbbi évek magyar irodalomtudományi diskurzusában Kulcsár Szabó Ernő könyvei (az elmúlt öt évben nem kevesebb, mint öt kötet) rendre fontos szerepet töltöttek be. Amint hangsúlyos kritikai visszhangjuk tanúsíthatja, (1) megjelenésük azért is jelentős esemény volt, mert sokban hozzájárult a tudományos beszédmód átalakításához. És ez nem kizárólag annak köszönhető, hogy az elméleti reflexiónak éppúgy, mint a történeti kutatásnak új, kétségkívül termékeny (valószínűleg az oktatásban is proáuktívvá tehető) lehetőségét teremtették meg e kötetek. Hanem annak is, hogy az írásokban kifejtett gondolatok az irodalom történeti és elméleti vizsgálatának olyan határozott, karakteres koncepcióját képviselik, amelyekkel a későbbiekben annak is számot kell vetnie, aki inkább vitatja, mint elfogaája azokat. Egy könyv produktív hatástörténeti helyzetét pedig mi sem teszi jobban beláthatóvá, mint az, ha olyan válaszokat (és kérdéseket) artikulál, amelyek eltérő kontextusokban is megőrzik a befogaáót új kérdések és válaszok megfogalmazására késztető hatáspotenciáljukat.

This article considers the limitations, but also the insights, of Gadamerian hermeneutics for understanding and responding to the crisis precipitated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Our point of departure is the experience of deep disagreements amid the pandemic, and our primary example is ongoing debates in the United States about wearing masks. We argue that, during this dire situation, interpersonal mutual understanding is insufficient for resolving such bitter disputes. Rather, following Gadamer's account of our dialogical experience with an artwork, we suggest that our encounter with the virus gives rise to new ways of seeing and experiencing ourselves and the world. Further, we draw on Gadamer's account of the fusion of horizons to show how even competing perspectives on wearing masks arise within a shared space of meaning created by the virus. These insights provide hope for an improved model of political dialogue in the world of Covid-19.

This essay centers on Romare Bearden's art, methodology, and thinking about art, and likewise explores his attempt to harmonize personal aesthetic goals with sociopolitical concerns. Following an investigation of Bearden's work and thought, we turn to Hans-Georg Gadamer's reflections on art and our experience (Erfahrung) of art. As the essay unfolds, we see how Bearden's approach to art and the artworks themselves resonate with Gadamer's critique of aesthetic consciousness and his contention that artworks address us. An important component of Gadamer's account is his emphasis on the spectator's active yet non-mastering role in the event of art's address -an event that implicates the spectator and has the potential to transform him or her. As we shall see, Gadamer's notion of aesthetic experience sharply contrasts with modern, subjectivizing aesthetics, as it requires not only active participatory engagement, but it also brings about a transformed "vision" and understanding of one's self, others, and the world. In closing, we return to Bearden in order to explore how his art unearths a crucial activity of our being-in-the-world. I call this activity "un-fabricating one's world" and discuss how it expands and enriches Gadamer's account.

The aim of this article is to examine the theory of the philosophy of knowledge of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger based on his understanding of fundamental ontology and the meaning of being. This study was conducted using qualitative methods, and thus the method of analysis in this study is bibliography. The results of the research show that it is possible to pose the following questions about the situation in Iran and other Islamic societies using Heidegger's approaches and terminologies: Under what conditions can questions be asked about the reification of Islam in the 20th century? Under what conditions can questions be asked about the thematization of Islam? Can we ask questions about the reification and thematization of Islam in the context of modernization, which originally belonged to the external lifeworld ?

The essay aims “to hear the voice of law among arms” by outlining a fundamental connection between a common world, peace and law, on the one hand, and the absence of a common world, war and lawlessness, on the other.
The key assumption is that law is a component of our fundamental experience that makes a common world possible and thus counteracts war as worldlessness. This idea unfolds in three stages. In the first part of the essay the author describes the experience of law as an aspect of our fundamental experience and a condition for the possibility of a common world and peace. The next one is about war as the absence of a common world (worldlessness), which causes the experience of lawlessness. In the final part, the paradox of “law of war” is considered.
The author argues that law aims to maintain the normative dimension of experience and counteract the totality of war as the totality of facticity.

This paper explores the enduring philosophical and spiritual tension between epistemology, how we know, and ontology, what is. It argues that the quest for ultimate meaning arises not from the resolution of these domains but from their unresolved interplay. Drawing from quantum physics, Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, neuroscience, and noetic science, the work highlights the inherent limits of empirical and logical knowledge in grasping the whole nature of reality. At the same time, it examines theological and mystical traditions, particularly from the Hebrew Bible and Jewish thought, which present being as dynamic, relational, and fundamentally mysterious. Faith is reframed not as unquestioning belief but as a consciousness orientation: a lived, participatory response to the mystery of existence. Through engagement with thinkers such as Heisenberg, Penrose, Maimonides, and Kierkegaard, the paper proposes a “faithful being” model rooted in epistemic humility, contemplative inquiry, and ethical transformation. Ultimately, it offers a vision in which human consciousness participates in unfolding reality and where the most profound truths are not merely known, but lived.

STEFANO MARINO.
"Contingency, (In)significance, and the All-Encompassing Trip: Pearl Jam and the Question of the Meaning of Life".
In: Stefano Marino and Andrea Schembari (eds.), "Pearl Jam and Philosophy".
Bloomsbury: London-New York, 2021.

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The first scholarly discussion on the band, "Pearl Jam and Philosophy" examines both the songs (music and lyrics) and the activities (live performances, political commitments) of one of the most celebrated and charismatic rock bands of the last 30 years.
The book investigates the philosophical aspects of their music at various levels: existential, spiritual, ethical, political, metaphysical and aesthetic.
This philosophical interpretation is also dependent on the application of textual and poetic analysis: the interdisciplinary volume puts philosophical aspects of the band's lyrics in close dialogue with 19th- and 20th-century European and American poetry.
Through this widespread philosophical examination, the book further looks into the band's immense popularity and commercial success, their deeply loyal fanbase and genuine sense of community surrounding their music, and the pivotal place the band holds within popular music and contemporary culture.

Link:
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/pearl-jam-and-philosophy-9781501362798/

The aim of this article is to show the crucial role of Blaise Pascal's work for the development of Martin Heidegger's early philosophical project-which lasted until the Turn [Kehre] of the 1930s. The scattered but decisive presence of quotes from the French thinker clearly shows how fundamental he was, both methodologically and content-wise, for Heidegger's initial elaboration of the question of Being [Seinsfrage] and the Existential Analytic of Dasein [Daseinanalytik].

The primary focus of this article is on the deconstruction of language within the context of glossolalia and the Theatre of the Absurd. Following World War II, the expression of absurdity in the literature and theatre gave rise to the Theatre of the Absurd as an antiliterary movement. Glossolalia appears both in the first Christian communities and within the charismatic renewal movement in modern times and refers to the gift of speaking in tongues. The objective of comparing these two occurrences is to identify their similarities and differences in their treatment of the language. Both glossolalia and the Theatre of the Absurd contain destructive aspects as they disintegrate language, but they also contain creative elements; glossolalia is prayer, and the Theatre of the Absurd has artistic merit. To consider the extent to which language deconstruction might serve as a prelude to creative endeavours, this analogy appears to be significant.

What happens when translation is not merely a linguistic operation, but a transformative event? This volume explores translation as a performative and eventful practice, situated at the intersection of textual production, cultural transformation, and embodied expression. Drawing on philosophical, hermeneutic, and performance-theoretical approaches, the contributors investigate how translation operates as an event—one that not only transfers meaning but reconfigures contexts, generates new forms of knowledge, and engages affective, ethical, and political dimensions. Topics include the eventful nature of literary and sacred translations, the interplay between translation and dance, music, and architecture, and the challenges of translating untranslatable or resistant texts. The volume critically interrogates metaphors of translation, models of fidelity, and the material and medial spaces in which translation occurs. Translation as Event offers an innovative account of translation as a situated, contingent, and sometimes disruptive act—one that both reflects and alters the horizons of the receiving culture.

Cet article se propose de mettre en exergue la conception élargie de l’interprétation que propose l’herméneutique africaine dans son émancipation du modèle textuel scripturaire occidental. En effet, du moment où l’herméneutique africaine contemporaine s’impose comme gnoséologie de la singularité philosophique africaine au détriment de toute appropriation in extenso du paradigme écrit de l’herméneutique, il est impérieux de préciser en quoi le penser du comprendre et de l’interpréter de l’être des singularités africaines obéi à une tout autre saisine herméneutique. De fait, il l’est une herméneutique philosophique africaine portée par la singularité du mode de transmission africain. Ainsi, le passage de la tradition orale à la tradition écrite aujourd’hui acté, ne peut se déroger de ce qui fait la spécificité de l’herméneutique philosophique africaine dont le rapt théorique n’aura été que la conséquence de vicissitudes charriées par l’impérialisme des théories herméneutiques scripturaires auto-exclusives des traditions orales. Aussi, la conception non restrictive de la notion de texte ou de littérature à la scripturalité, mais élargie à une oralité savamment inscrite dans une tradition nous permet d’éprouver les limites de l’herméneutique contemporaine et de préciser le réquisit d’une plus-value constitutive d’une refonte herméneutique de plus en plus inclusive. Cela suggère que la théorie herméneutique ne peut être statique, mais qu’elle pourrait évoluer au contact de nouvelles expériences et traditions.

Bultmann unreservedly accepts and even adopts Heidegger's description of the generic man of Dasein in Being and Time. The two colleagues disagree on the resolution. It is not certain that Bultmann could have fully understood the meaning of what Heidegger calls, in Being and Time, "the call of moral conscience," which would later become "das Ereignis". The ambiguity of the term works in Bultmann's favor, who sees it as a description of purely New Testament origin. However, this call is not only philosophical or, in Bultmann's term, "natural"—natural being opposed in his view to divine or supernatural—it is above all metaphysical in the non-theological sense of metaphysics, in the sense of metaphysics as defined in the lecture “What is Metaphysics?”

In this explorative paper, I propose that relatively recent trends in Western continental philosophy can provide a much more commensurate access to Chinese philosophy than found in most mainstream Western philosophy. More specifically, I argue that three prominent European philosophical approaches to interpretation can offer meaningful parallels to classical Confucian views of interpretation. These are Paul Ricoeur's term "distanciation", Hans-Georg Gadamer's philosophy of hermeneutics and, finally, Jacques Derrida's deconstructive notion of "différance". While the last two approaches have had their internal clashes, I see them in this specific case as mutually reinforcing by stimulating the continuous reinterpretation of tradition, advancing the view that Western and Chinese philosophies cannot be reduced to the other in conceptual terms, and stipulating that a finalized meaning or interpretation of each is a priori unattainable. In this way, they provide a future opening for-and even integration of-a Chinese-Western philosophical dialogue.

Cosmic creation is symbolized in Indian Philosophy by the dance of Prakruti, nature around the Purusha, the Lord. in Sankhya system of Indian Philosophy, and in the dance of Nataraja in Indian art, the concept of play is further developed. The cosmos is in a permanent dance, where our sun and the moon and all the planets with the stars are in a gigantic dance around the milky way and the trillions of galaxies dancing in that eternal space which again is in permanent expansion. At the quantum level too that this dance is continued. Like the little children, we may say, do not disturb we are playing, we are dancing. We are at play. The whole universe is at play in a harmonious and rhythmic dance of eternal forces.

The essay aims to consider side by side, within the hermeneutic paradigm, the trajectories of the philosophy of translation and the post-metaphysical and not-substantialist direction of the hermeneutic theoretical approach, taken as a whole. Particular attention will be given to the philosophies
of Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur and Walter Benjamin. The question of translation will be considered not only from the point of view of interlinguistic translation, but also from the perspective of intermedial (or inter-semiotic) translation, i.e. from word to image. This form of translation will be understood, through the aesthetic notion of resonance, as an emblematic example of the process of irradiation of the origin(al).

Nick Zepke, my esteemed teacher and friend , of the College of Education, Massey University (Wellington), for his friendly assistance, scholarly guidance, encouragement, valuable comments, patients and formal supervision during my period of registration at Massey University, New Zealand. Ors. Linda Leach and marg gilling, senior lecturers of the College of Education, Massey University (Wellington), for their friendship , helpful correspondence, and encouragement throughout this research. Mrs. Karen Stanley for her generous help in proofreading , and other help and advice in the presentation of this thesis. My colleagues at Trinity College , the University of Melbourne and the United Faculty of Theology, the Melbourne College of Divinity, who have accommodated my "nonsystematic" approach to theology and "cultural hermeneutics". My graduate students who were both willing to learn from a teacher whose teaching methods were in a constant change , and acted as peers in supporting and affirming the effectiveness of my teaching. My loving father and mother for their love, support and steadfast encouragement throughout the entire period which was dedicated to this project. My wife Ranjitharani, son and daughter, Ruwanmal and Eshara, who sacrificially shared with me the journey of this project, and assisted me in their own ways. To each of the people and institutions mentioned I express my debt and gratitude for enabling me to bring to completion an ambition which has persisted for a long timeever since I was first intrigued by the value of innovative adult education at the beginning of the twenty first century.