Strong Hermeneutics : Contingency and Moral Identity.
Title:
Strong Hermeneutics : Contingency and Moral Identity.
Author:
Smith, Nicholas H.
ISBN:
9780203053553
Personal Author:
Edition:
1st ed.
Physical Description:
1 online resource (208 pages)
Contents:
Strong Hermeneutics Contingency and moral identity -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1 The variety of hermeneutics -- Before hermeneutics: Enlightenment fundamentalism -- Weak hermeneutics: Nietzsche, Rorty and Postmodernism -- Strong hermeneutics: Gadamer, Taylor and Ricoeur -- Deep hermeneutics: Early Habermas and critical theory -- Beyond hermeneutics: Discourse ethics -- 2 Strong hermeneutics and the contingency of self -- Taylor's philosophical anthropology -- Rorty, Nietzsche and Freud -- Strong hermeneutics and the postmodern self -- Ricoeur on self-identity -- 3 Interpretation, practical reason and tradition -- The narrative form of practical reason -- Strong evaluation and moral realism -- Pluralism and conservatism -- 4 Deep hermeneutics, emancipation and fate -- Ethical totality and the causality of fate -- Habermas, Hegel and Freud -- Norm, nature and recognition -- 5 Communication and the contingency of language -- Communicative and strategic language use -- Deconstructive and agonistic objections to the primacy of communication -- Wittgenstein, idealizations and hermeneutics -- 6 Strong hermeneutics and discourse ethics -- Discourse ethics and the moral point of view -- Morality and ethical life -- Habermas and neo-Aristotelianism -- Conclusion: Towards a critique of procedural reason -- 7 The ecological politics of strong hermeneutics -- Ecology and the subject of responsibility -- Postmodernism, political theory and responsibility to otherness -- The truth of world-disclosure -- Politics, language and criticism -- Notes -- Index.
Abstract:
Recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in ethics, particularly in the approaches of deconstruction and hermeneutics. At the same time, questions of identity have risen to prominence in philosophy and beyond into cultural studies and literature. Strong Hermeneutics is a clear and accessible investigation of both the enlightenment and postmodern or 'weak' approaches to contemporary discussions of ethics. The weak view, which can be traced back to Nietzche and seen in the recent work of Rorty and Lyotard, is sceptical of any universal principles in ethics. The enlightenment view, starting with Kant and more recently seen in the work of Habermas, views identity as subject to universal but formal moral constraints, the renewing of which is the proper task of ethics. Nicholas Smith argues that neither of these views can provide a proper framework for ethics. He puts forward a third position - a strong hermeneutics - drawing on the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur and Charles Taylor. Strong Hermeneutics presents a defence of this view, compares it with the realism and anti-realism debate in philosophy, and demonstrates its relevance to contemporary issues, particularly ecological responsibility.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
Genre:
Electronic Access:
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