
The Roots of Hermeneutics in Kant's Reflective-Teleological Judgment
Horst Ruthrof(Author)
Springer (Publisher)
Published on 29. November 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
XXVII, 402 pages
978-3-031-18639-4 (ISBN)
Description
This book challenges the standard view that modern hermeneutics begins with Friedrich Ast and Friedrich Schleiermacher, arguing instead that it is the dialectic of reflective and teleological reason in Kant's
Critique of Judgment
that provides the actual proto-hermeneutic foundation. It is revolutionary in doing so by replacing interpretive truth claims by the more appropriate claim of rendering opaque contexts
intelligible
. Taking Gadamer's comprehensive analysis of hermeneutics in
Truth and Method
(1960) as its point of departure, the book turns to Kant's Critiques, reviewing his major concepts as a coherent system in relation to his
sensus communis
. At the heart of the book is the interaction between reflective, bottom-up search and teleological, top-down interpretative projection as provided in Part II of the third
Critique
.
This text contends that Kant's broad definition of nature invites the liberation of thereflective-teleological judgment from its biological exemplifications and so permits us to establish its generalised status as a path-breaking, methodological tool. Kant's dialectic of reflective search and meaning bestowing, stipulated teleology is asserted to anticipate a series of motifs commonly associated with hermeneutics. Figures covered include Dilthey, Husserl, Ingarden, Heidegger, Gadamer, Apel, Habermas, Ricoeur, Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, Deleuze, Vattimo, Nancy and Caputo. Their collective contributions to interpretation allow for a review of the evolution of hermeneutics from the perspective of the Kantian critique of the limitations of human cognition. The book is written for the informed, general reader, but will likewise appeal to advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers in the humanities and social sciences.
This text contends that Kant's broad definition of nature invites the liberation of thereflective-teleological judgment from its biological exemplifications and so permits us to establish its generalised status as a path-breaking, methodological tool. Kant's dialectic of reflective search and meaning bestowing, stipulated teleology is asserted to anticipate a series of motifs commonly associated with hermeneutics. Figures covered include Dilthey, Husserl, Ingarden, Heidegger, Gadamer, Apel, Habermas, Ricoeur, Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, Deleuze, Vattimo, Nancy and Caputo. Their collective contributions to interpretation allow for a review of the evolution of hermeneutics from the perspective of the Kantian critique of the limitations of human cognition. The book is written for the informed, general reader, but will likewise appeal to advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers in the humanities and social sciences.
More details
Series
Edition
2023 ed.
Language
English
Place of publication
Cham
Switzerland
Publishing group
Springer International Publishing
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
XXVII, 402 p.
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
651 gr
ISBN-13
978-3-031-18639-4 (9783031186394)
DOI
10.1007/978-3-031-18637-0
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
11/2022
Springer
€128.39
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Having taught English literature and language philosophy for some 40 years, Horst Ruthrof is a founding member of Murdoch University in Perth and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He is the author of
The Reader's Construction of Narrative
(1981; 2017);
Pandora and Occam
:
On the Limits of Language and Literature
(1992; 2017);
Semantics and the Body
:
Meaning from Frege to the Postmodern
(1997; 1998);
The Body in Language
(2000; 2015);
Language and Imaginability
(2014); and
Husserl's Phenomenology of Language
:
Intersubjectivity and Communality in the Nachlass
(2021).
Content
Introduction: Gadamer - Benchmark of
Hermeneutics.-
The
Chiastic
Structure of Kant's Critical Concepts.- Kant's
Proto-Hermeneutics
.- Kant's Conception of Natural Language.- Ast, Schleiermacher, Dilthey: Hermeneutics as
Inductive Reconstruction
.- Husserl and Ingarden: Hermeneutic
Intentionality
.- Heidegger: Being and the Hermeneutics of
Pro-jection
.- Ricoeur: Hermeneutics as
Self-Recognition
.- Apel and Habermas: Emancipatory Hermeneutics.- Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard:
Decentred
Hermeneutics.- Vattimo, Nancy, Caputo: Hermeneutics in the Shadow of
Nihilism
.- Conclusion: Hermeneutics of the
Absolute
.