Relational Hermeneutics

To find "oneself as another" (Ricoeur) - surely a great motto for unfettered minds. By exploring the role of interpretive understanding in numerous fields, Relational Hermeneutics offers convincing proof of Gadamer's claim of the differential "universality" of hermeneutical inquiry. In a time ravaged by deception and fake news, the book strikes a blow for genuine understanding across borders, thus providing a sheet anchor against myopic positivism, ethnocentrism, and arid conceptualism. One can only wish the book a broad readership, in the West and the East. * Fred Dallmayr, Emeritus Packey J. Dee Professor, University of Notre Dame, USA *
To investigate what is involved in interpreting and understanding things- literary works, sacred scripture, cryptic memos, recipes, other people, anything at all-is the task of philosophical hermeneutics. The essays collected in this volume assume this task but redirect the inquiry in a novel manner. Each essay addresses one of four traditions-existentialism, pragmatism, poststructuralism or Eastern philosophy-and discusses particular themes as they have been treated by authors belonging to that tradition. The result of this 'relational hermeneutics' is far more than just another volume of comparative philosophy. It is an unexpected new insight into how we understand ourselves. * Jeff Mitscherling, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Guelph, Canada *
Bringing hermeneutic philosophy into conversation with other Western and Eastern philosophical traditions, the contributors to Relational Hermeneutics track illuminating affinities and differences between hermeneutic figures such as Heidegger, Gadamer and Ricouer and existentialist, pragmatist, post-structuralist, Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian figures such as Dewey, De Beauvoir, Foucault, Irigaray and Zhuangzi. In so doing the contributors provide new insights into issues of time, the body, experience, understanding, poetry, ethics, power, emotion and "the turning word." The result is a very welcome and important volume. * Georgia Warnke, Distinguished Professor, Political Science, University of California Riverside, USA *