Introduction-to-Hermeneutics-Autosaved.ppt

INTRODUCTION TO HERMENEUTICS  THE IDEA OF HERMENEUTICS Hermeneutics is derived from the Greek word  (hermeneuein), meaning to interpret, and its derivative  (hermeneia) meaning interpretation. The main reason why hermeneutics seemed to be a very complicated idea is th...

INTRODUCTION TO HERMENEUTICS  THE IDEA OF HERMENEUTICS Hermeneutics is derived from the Greek word  (hermeneuein), meaning to interpret, and its derivative  (hermeneia) meaning interpretation. The main reason why hermeneutics seemed to be a very complicated idea is that it has indeed become complex due to the inter-twining of its multiple layers of meanings and concerns. In its barest sense, hermeneutics can be understood as: a theory, methodology and praxis of interpretation that is geared towards the recapturing of meaning of a text, or a text-analogue, that is temporally or culturally distant, or obscured by ideology and false consciousness.  THE IDEA OF HERMENEUTICS Hermeneutics presupposes that texts and text-analogues that are distant in time and culture, or that are blanketed by ideology and false consciousness, would necessarily appear chaotic, incomplete, contradictory and distorted, and that they need to be systematically interpreted to unveil their underlying coherence or sense. Time R R E E CultureT T A A E E D D X X Ideology E E T T R R False Consciousness  THE IDEA OF HERMENEUTICS a theory, methodology and praxis of interpretation that is geared towards the recapturing of meaning of a text, or a text-analogue, that is temporally or culturally distant, or obscured by ideology and false consciousness. As this working definition suggests, hermeneutics has three different layers of meanings and concerns: concerned about the epistemological validity Theory and possibility of interpretation concerned about the formulation of reliable Hermeneutics Methodology systems of interpretation concerned about the actual process of Praxis interpreting specific texts  THE IDEA OF HERMENEUTICS Hermeneutics, as a praxis of interpretation, emerged very early in the history of civilizations. The great cultures of the antiquity generally had their share of sacred literature that need to be interpreted and re-interpreted by their priestly and royal classes. Thus, hermeneutics had been practiced by ancient people long before philosophy ever thought of as a discipline belonging to its own province. THE IDEA OF HERMENEUTICS In late antiquity, the Greeks, the Jews and the Christians had been reading and re-reading their vital texts, namely the Homeric epics, the Torah, Talmud and Midrashim, and the Holy Bible, respectively. In the process of their textual labor, these people revised their own idiosyncratic sets of rules for doing interpretation: thus, hermeneutics, as methodology of interpretation, started to evolve from hermeneutics, as praxis of interpretation.  THE IDEA OF HERMENEUTICS The full development of hermeneutics, as methodology of interpretation, however, happened some more centuries later during the Renaissance period. This development was triggered by a heightened need for hermeneutic praxis that transformed the once purely practical operation into a self- conscious procedure. This heightened need for praxis in return had been catalyzed by two landmark historical phenomena: the protestant reformation and the renaissance's fascination for classical Greek and Roman texts.  THE IDEA OF HERMENEUTICS The protestant reformation had spawned a whole process of debate regarding the Christian's relationship with the sacred scriptures. Whereas the catholic church re-asserted, during 1546 the Council of Trent, its age-old position that it is its own authority which is the ultimate norm of interpreting the Holy Bible, the protestants insisted on the principles of perspicuity-the need for a keenness of the interpreter's discernment-and self sufficiency of the sacred scriptures. Freed from the blanketing dogma of the catholic church, the protestant theologians and scripturists, led by Matthias Flacius Illyricus (1520-1575), have to rely on more self- conscious hermeneutic systems.  THE IDEA OF HERMENEUTICS The renaissance's fascination with the classical Greek and Roman texts, as the second catalyst, had already generated a whole arsenal of interpretive methodologies, collectively known as Ars Critica, that are useful in establishing the authenticity of the texts as well as in reconstructing the text's most original and correct version. Side by side with this purely humanist concern, renaissance jurists were also struggling to re-interpret the Roman Law, specifically, the Justinian Code of AD 533. Hermeneutics as methodology of interpretation, therefore, did not only fully develop during the renaissance period, it proliferated into a collection of contradicting, incoherent and confusing systems.  THE IDEA OF HERMENEUTICS From the chaotic presence of hermeneutic systems, as methodologies of interpretation, there appeared a need for a more critical and foundational evaluation of interpretation itself, an epistemology into its validity and possibility. It was Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768-1834), a German protestant theologian and philologist, who initiated philosophy's focusing on the problems of interpretation and the need for a unified systematic method of hermeneutics. Thus, hermeneutics, as a theory, or epistemology, of interpretation materialized.  THE IDEA OF HERMENEUTICS Placed in a crucible of intense philosophical analysis and further theorization, hermeneutics emerged as a more powerful system suitable not only for religion, and humanism, but also for the steadily growing social sciences. The contagion of hermeneutics from the world of religious and humanist textuality to the social sciences' sphere of human action, behavior and culture had been facilitated by the expansion of the meaning of textuality itself. What was traditionally understood as something that refers only to things that are or can be written has been stretched to cover almost anything that has something to do with man and culture.  THE IDEA OF HERMENEUTICS Today, not only documents, literary texts and scriptures can be called texts, but also symbols, rituals, practices and customs, myths, structures of power, kinship and social set-ups, and many more besides. Hermeneutics, therefore, evolved from pure unreflective praxis that is solely concerned with religious themes to a highly systematic and reflective praxis that can be applied to any text or text-analogue. Need for Theoretical Pure Praxis Scientific Praxis Methodology Re-Evaluation Religious & Philosophical Religious, Humanistic, Religious Theme Humanistic Themes Theme Philosophical & Sociological Themes  THE IDEA OF HERMENEUTICS The fact that hermeneutics evolved from praxis into praxis demonstrates that it is its praxis component which is its most important layer of meaning, its ultimate aim and its reason for existence. Take away praxis from the picture, then theory and methodology theory would not make any sense at all. But the fact that it also evolved into its present status of being highly systematic and reflective scientific praxis dictates that before the modern-day praxis can ever commence a thorough knowledge of theory and methodology is necessary.  THE DIVERSE HERMENEUTIC SYSTEMS Even though Schleiermacher attempted to unify the pre- existing diverse hermeneutic systems, this diversity persisted through the present times. However, today's immense number of hermeneutic systems need not be seen as a chaotic mass, nor a dense cognitive forest, that are enough to discourage the neophyte from exploring further.  THE DIVERSE HERMENEUTIC SYSTEMS These systems can be easily categorized into just five groups of hermeneutic systems: Romanticist Hermeneutics Phenomenological Hermeneutics Dialectical Hermeneutics Critical Hermeneutics Post-Structural Hermeneutics. This categorization, though admittedly a didactic attempt to organize diversity for the sake of presentation to the neophyte, is nevertheless not something that is purely arbitrary.  THE DIVERSE HERMENEUTIC SYSTEMS Rather, our categorization of the diverse hermeneutic systems into just five groups is specified by the variations of the structural components of interpretation itself, of which there are three: Subject Object Goal T R U R T E T H / A E METHOD METHOD M D X E E T A R N I N G System of Interpretation (Hermeneutics)  THE DIVERSE HERMENEUTIC SYSTEMS How a given hermeneutic system preconceives the subject, the object and its goal will determine not only its categorization to any of the aforementioned five systems, but also the structure of this given hermeneutic system itself. Hermeneutic systems are structured in accordance to their idiosyncratic notions of subjectivity, textuality, and truth/meaning. Romanticist Hermeneutics Schleiermacher and his follower Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) are the main proponents of romanticist hermeneutics. As theorists of the 19th and the 20th centuries, both of them were heirs to a very dominant philosophy of the subject initiated by the French scientist, mathematician, and founder of modern philosophy Rene Descartes (1596- 1650). Romanticist Hermeneutics With his famous statement Cogito, ergo sum, Descartes painted a subject who, though prone to commit cognitive errors and conceptual distortions, is nonetheless fully self- conscious and capable of attaining objective knowledge through a regimen of philosophical, scientific and mathematical methodologies. This Cartesian subject is the same subject that is presupposed by romanticist hermeneutics. As a biblical scholar and philologist, Schleiermacher had a first hand experience of the recurrent vagueness of texts, prompting romanticist hermeneutics to conceptualize textuality as some sort of a floating signifier that is incomplete without its temporal and cultural contexts. Romanticist Hermeneutics To drive the point of a floating signifier that is incomplete without its temporal and cultural contexts, the following medieval artifact would be an interesting example to cite. This intricately crafted metal device that blooms open when its handle is turned, would be a curiosity, but would certainly baffle as well the average modern man as to what is it in the first place. It is the historical and cultural contexts of the medieval world that can only give back the meaning and identity of this intricate device. Romanticist Hermeneutics Historical Context A U As a reformation biblical T H R O scholar, Schleiermacher E T R ‘ intended that the goal of A E S D X romanticist hermeneutics is to E T I N recapture the truth of the text, R T E which is defined in terms of the N T original authorial intent. Cultural Context Romantic System of Interpretation Romanticist Hermeneutics Romanticist Hermeneutics Through a historical research we can discover that this artifact is actually a horrifying torture tool. This is the oral pear that comes with some variations, the anal pear and the vaginal pear. The oral pear is intended for the heretics. It is heated until it glows red and placed inside the heretic’s mouth. Once its handle is turned, its red hot petals bloom and sear the heretic’s throat. The anal and vaginal variations are larger and come with spiked petals. These are not usually heated, but are inserted in the genitals of an adulterous woman, or in the rectal orifice of a man who committed sodomy, and are intended to lacerate the soft tissues. Phenomenological Hermeneutics Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), the founder of the phenomenological movement, like Descartes, was also a mathematician and philosopher. Though he shared the same skepticism about scientific method that can be traced back as far as the romantic movement, he nonetheless believed that despite the human cognitive frailty, the human subject remains fully self-conscious and capable of attaining reliable knowledge through a more systematic approach. Husserl's philosophy of the subject remains Cartesian. Phenomenological Hermeneutics Like the romanticist hermeneutics, phenomenological hermeneutics also assumes that in order for the object to be fully interpreted, a proper context, or a mental frame is needed. But instead of considering the extraneous historical and cultural contexts, phenomenological hermeneutics argued that the text reflects its own mental frame. Husserl stated his dictum Zu den Sachen selbst! ("to the things themselves"), because he considered objects as complete in themselves. “SITZE IM LEBEN” (LIFE-WORLD) Phenomenological Hermeneutics T H I R N E T G A E A D X S E T R S U C H Phenomenological System of Interpretation Phenomenological Hermeneutics Phenomenological Hermeneutics Phenomenological hermeneutics was applied to social research in the form of ethnography. Ethnography sets that the minimum duration of a research is one cycle, that is one year, to enable the researcher to see all aspects of the society’s life-world. Dialectical Hermeneutics If both romanticist and phenomenological hermeneutics took for granted the Cartesian subject, dialectical hermeneutics is founded on, and in fact contributed to the emergence of, a new philosophy of the subject. Dialectical Hermeneutics Dialectical Hermeneutics By assailing the Cartesian subject, Heidegger also assailed the metaphysics of realism that served as the cornerstone for the Cartesian, romanticist and phenomenological philosophies of the object. A new philosophy of the object is needed. For dialectical hermeneutics, an object, or text, can contain an infinity of meanings. Dialectical Hermeneutics M R E E T A A E N D X I E T N R G Dialectical System of Interpretation Dialectical Hermeneutics Dialectical Hermeneutics Dialectical Hermeneutics Dialectical hermeneutics is modeled on the process of dialogue, where consensus is reached after an oftentimes arduous but sincere process. Two persons might start as two very different individuals, but once they decide to be become a couple who committedly interact and communicate each day would eventually end up as two persons with very similar personalities and outlook. Such similarity is a product of a negotiated and shared meaning. Critical Hermeneutics The Heideggerian existential subject did not emerge unchallenged. The critical theorists from the Institut fur Sozialforschung (founded, 1923), otherwise known as the Frankfurt School, a center known for its strategic combination of Marxist style philosophical investigation with the emerging methodologies of the social sciences, remained faithful to the Cartesian subject: the fully self-conscious mind who despite its frailty is capable of attaining reliable knowledge through a systematic approach. Critical Hermeneutics Yet, even though basically Cartesian in its conception of the subject, the theorists of critical hermeneutics have a radically new philosophy of the object that is very different from the realist metaphysics of romanticist and phenomenological hermeneutics, as well as from the existential object of dialectical hermeneutics. The new philosophy of the object is founded on the thoughts of the German philosopher and economist Karl Marx (1818-1883), the German philosopher and philologist Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900), and the Austrian physician and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Critical Hermeneutics These theorists demonstrated that textuality can be infiltrated with power and forces that are formerly considered extraneous to it and practically innocuous. Specifically, Marx argued that textuality can be warped by capitalist and class-based ideologies; Nietzsche, by cultural norms; and Freud, by the unconscious. These extraneous powers and forces are capable of penetrating deep into the text, by weaving into its linguistic fabric. Critical Hermeneutics Thus, even without the cultural and temporal distances that made romanticist hermeneutics anxious, or even without the differences of life-worlds that bothered both phenomenological and dialectical hermeneutics, there is no guarantee for the reader to be brought side by side with the truth/meaning of a text, because textuality can be veiled by ideology and false consciousness. Time R E Culture T A E D X Ideology E T R False Consciousness Critical Hermeneutics The goal of this hermeneutic R T E T system is to diagnose the R A E U hidden pathology of texts and D X T to free them from their E T H R ideological distortions. Critical System of Interpretation Critical Hermeneutics Again, we have seen how the idiosyncratic notions of subjectivity, textuality and truth had structured the critical system of interpretation. Since ideological infiltration supposedly happens in a particular point in time and space, it is not unusual for critical theorists to employ the historical and cultural methodologies of the romanticist hermeneutics as auxiliary tools. Critical Hermeneutics Oftentimes, suffering and oppression are not visible or graspable as such. Other cultural texts and practices would veil them as trials, or the natural state of things, and hide away deeply their real causes. Critical hermeneutics would reveal suffering as suffering, and oppression as oppression, and would moreover dig deeper into their structural causes. Post-Structural Hermeneutics The radically new philosophy of the object generated by the path-breaking thoughts of Marx, Nietzsche and Freud, were pursued further by the post-structuralists in the sphere of the philosophy of the subject, thereby giving birth to the post-modern subject. For the post-structuralists, the subject has lost its primacy that had been taken for granted by the previous philosophical systems, it is now decentered, and is presently considered a mere intersection of point of the various socio-economic and cultural forces that shape the human individual. Post-Structural Hermeneutics This is the philosophy of the subject that post-structuralism is explicitly espousing. But to what extent do the post-structuralist theorists actually upholding such notion of subjectivity? They are a little ambivalent here. A human person, as an other, or as a text, is certainly viewed as a decentered person by the post-structuralist. But the human person, as the self, or as the reader, or as the post-structuralist critic, is viewed in a slightly different light. In the bottom-line, the post-structuralist philosophy of the subject wavers between the Cartesian and the existential paradigms of subjectivity. Post-Structural Hermeneutics As heirs of the philosophies of suspicion of Marx, Nietzsche and Freud, post-structuralist hermeneutics also adheres to a philosophy of the object that is similar to that of the critical hermeneutics: texts are warped by power and ideology. In addition to this critical conception of the object, post- structuralists also adhere to the idea of dialectical hermeneutics that texts may contain an infinity of meaning. They see texts as a web of other texts, whose meanings are determined by the readers instead of the original authorial intention.  MIDTERM EXAMINATION IN HERMENEUTICS Test 1 Describe the following concepts 3 points each 1.Hermeneutics 2.Text 3.Council of Trent and Hermeneutics 4.Matthias Flacius Illyricus 5. Grammatical Reconstruction 6. Divinatory Reconstruction 7. Transcendental Phenomenological Reduction 8. Ethnography 9. Fore-structures of understanding in Heidegger 10. Marx-Nietszche-Freud 11.Critical Hermeneutics 12. Post Structural Hermeneutics 13. Temporal Distance 14. False Consciousness 15. Sign Value Test 2. ESSAY. Answer all the Questions thoroughly A.If Post-structuralism is to be acknowledged as a tenable philosophical position, can we still possess absolute parameters for the notions of justice, freedom or equality? B.If critical hermeneutics is to be acknowledged as a tenable philosophical position, does it follow that every thing that we say or do is always ideologically constituted including my decision to enter the seminary? Is there an alternative interpretation? What is that? Post-Structural Hermeneutics Hence, like their philosophy of the subject, the post- structuralist philosophy of the object, or of textuality, also wavers between the critical and the dialectical ideas of objectivity or textuality. If their philosophies of the subject and the object waver between two paradigms, their conception of the goal of interpretation would also be two-fold. Post-Structural Hermeneutics Historical Context M R E E T A A E N D X I E T N R G Cultural Context Post-Structural System of Interpretation Post-Structural Hermeneutics Post-Structural Hermeneutics Feminist and post-colonial criticism, and several other post-modern interpretive theories that deploys the philosophical thoughts of such thinkers as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean Francois Lyotard, and others, are the instances of this type of hermeneutic system. RESTROSPECT ON THE ORGANIZED DIVERSITY OF HERMENEUTIC SYSTEMS Hence, we have seen that even with the immense diversity of hermeneutic systems, we need not plow through a confusing mass of chaotic materials, nor explore through a dense cognitive forest, for we have strategically organized these systems into just five groups. As we have mentioned, our strategic schematization is nothing purely didactic but is governed by the variations of the three structural components of the diverse hermeneutic systems themselves. RESTROSPECT ON THE ORGANIZED DIVERSITY OF HERMENEUTIC SYSTEMS The following table presents a concise comparison of the different preconceptions of subjectivity, textuality, and truth/meaning of each of the aforementioned hermeneutic systems, and how these preconceptions have determined the structure of the hermeneutic arrows.  RESTROSPECT ON THE ORGANIZED DIVERSITY OF HERMENEUTIC SYSTEMS Hermeneutic Conception of Conception of Structure of the Goal System the Subject the Object Hermeneutic Arrow Realist but Incomplete From the Reader to the Romanticist Truth as Authorial Cartesian without the Text, Via the Historical Hermeneutics Intention Historical and and Cultural Contexts Cultural Contexts Realist Phenomenological From the Text Cartesian and Complete Truth as Such Hermeneutics to the Reader in Itself Contains an Consensus as Dialectical Heideggerian Infinity of Existential Circular Hermeneutics Meanings Meaning Warped by Incisive Arrows that Critical Ideologically Cartesian Ideology and Penetrate through the Hermeneutics Purified Truth Power Fabric of the Text Warped by Decentered but Ideology and Ideologically Post-Structural Wavers between Power and Purified Truth and Multiple and Variously Hermeneutics the Cartesian and Contains an Meaning of the Structured Arrows the Heideggerian Infinity of here and now Meanings RESTROSPECT ON THE ORGANIZED DIVERSITY OF HERMENEUTIC SYSTEMS Though our strategic approach is nothing arbitrary, admittedly it is reductionist in nature. We should expect therefore to see fuller detail and further variations when we explore the specific hermeneutic systems within each of the five groups. After going through the different layers of hermeneutic concerns, and after having an overview of the different groups of hermeneutic systems, two crucial questions may confront us at this point. First, among the three different layers of hermeneutic concerns-namely, theory, methodology, and praxis-which one is the most important? RESTROSPECT ON THE ORGANIZED DIVERSITY OF HERMENEUTIC SYSTEMS Second, among the five different groups of hermeneutic systems, which one is the most powerful interpretive tool? For the first question, as it is already stated above, the fact that hermeneutics evolved from pure praxis to highly reflective praxis is enough proof that it is the praxis component of hermeneutics which is its most important layer. There is hermeneutic theory, and there is hermeneutic methodology, because there is a need for hermeneutic praxis in the first place. RESTROSPECT ON THE ORGANIZED DIVERSITY OF HERMENEUTIC SYSTEMS But, again as it is already stated above, the fact that hermeneutics evolved into its present status of being highly systematic and reflective scientific praxis dictates that before the modern-day praxis can ever commence a thorough knowledge of theory and methodology is necessary. In a similar flow of reasoning, this introductory essay to hermeneutics is ultimately intended to encourage the praxis of hermeneutics. But the fact that this essay is an introductory material to hermeneutics as a whole dictates that it focus more on the theoretical and methodological concerns of hermeneutics. RESTROSPECT ON THE ORGANIZED DIVERSITY OF HERMENEUTIC SYSTEMS The praxis of hermeneutics will only happen when a subject, having a thoroughly functional knowledge of the theory and methodology of hermeneutics, applies his/her knowledge in the actual interpretation of specific texts. For the second question, among the five groups of hermeneutic systems, there is really no best system. Each of the five systems has its own advantages and disadvantages. The question "which is the best system?" can be answered only in relation to the specific hermeneutic task at hand. RESTROSPECT ON THE ORGANIZED DIVERSITY OF HERMENEUTIC SYSTEMS This means that we have to settle first the question "what is it that I want to do?" and looking for the most appropriate hermeneutic system will be an easier thing to do. There is no best hermeneutic system, there are only appropriate or suitable hermeneutic systems.  INTRODUCTION TO HERMENEUTICS End of Presentation LON QUIZ MSP ONLY 2-6-2023 Test 1. Describe the ff. Concepts: 3 points each 1.Grammatical Reconstruction 2.Divinatory Reconstruction 3.Historical School 4.Epoche 5.Eidetic Reduction 6.Temporal Distance 7.Hermeneutic Circle 8.False Consciousness 9.Sign Value 10.Postmodernism Test 2 ESSAY 10 pts each question: 1.Of the 5 Hermeneutic Traditions which tradition you find more helpful as a tool of interpretation? Why 2.What is the significance of Dialectical Hermeneutics ? 3.What do Heidegger and Gadamer see as limitation to Husserls phenomenological Reduction