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Hermeneutics and Pluralism

Class at Faculty of Arts |
AFSV00105

Syllabus

The intensive course takes place from 23rd of April to 27th of April 2012. The course will be in room 217, on Monday to Thursday at 19:10 and on Friday on 12:30.

Annotation

These lectures concern the problem of interpretation especially as it emerges in German philosophical hermeneutics. I approach the problem both historically and systematically.

The main question is whether an object of interpretation admits of more than one correct interpretation and, if so, why. I begin by discussing the place of interpretation within philosophy and its relation to epistemological inquiry. I then examine in detail the theory of Hans-Georg Gadamer.

Finally I develop arguments for pluralism inspired by but going beyond Gadamer. I rely on the idea of the plasticity of the interpreted object and tackle the problem of finding criteria for distinguishing good from bad interpretations.