Gadamer and Ricoeur Critical Horizons for Contemporary Hermeneutics

Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur were two of the most important hermeneutical philosophers of the twentieth century. Gadamer single-handedly revived hermeneutics as a philosophical field with his many essays and his masterpiece, Truth and Method. Ricoeur famously mediated the Gadamer-Habermas debate and advanced his own hermeneutical philosophy through a number of books addressing social theory, religion, psychoanalysis and political philosophy. This book brings Gadamer and Ricoeur into a hermeneutical conversation with each other through some of their most important commentators. Twelve leading scholars deliver contemporary assessments of the history and promise of hermeneutical philosophy, providing focused discussion on the work of these two key hermeneutical thinkers. The book shows how the horizons of their thought at once support and question each other and how, in many ways, the work of these two pioneering philosophers defines the issues and agendas for the new century.

George H. Taylor is Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. He is the editor of Paul Ricoeur's Lectures on Ideology and Utopia (Columbia University Press, 1986).

Introduction George H. Taylor and Francis J. Mootz III \ I. History \ 1. Destruktion-Konstruktion: Heidegger, Gadamer, Ricoeur P. Christopher Smith \ II. Engagements \ 2. The Dialectic of Belonging and Distanciation in Gadamer and Ricoeur Merold Westphal \ 3. Hermeneutics as Project of Liberation: The Concept of Tradition in Paul Ricoeur and Hans-Georg Gadamer Andreea Deciu Ritivoi \ 4. Gadamer's Rhetorical Conception of Hermeneutics as the Key to Developing a Critical Hermeneutics Francis J. Mootz III \ 5. Understanding as Metaphoric, Not a Fusion of Horizons George H. Taylor \ 6. Where Is Muthos Hiding in Gadamer's Hermeneutics? Or, the Ontological Privilege of Emplotment John Arthos \ 7. Paul Ricoeur's and Hans-Georg Gadamer's Diverging Reflections on Recognition David Vessey \ 8. Is Phronesis Deinon? Ricoeur on Tragedy and Phronesis David H. Fisher \ III. Extensions \ 9. Ricoeur's Model of Translation and Responsible Political Practice Bernard P. Dauenhauer \ 10. Understanding the Body: The Relevance of Gadamer's and Ricoeur's View of the Body for Feminist Theory Louise D. Derksen and Annemie Halsema \ 11. Thing Hermeneutics David M. Kaplan \ 12. Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics and New Confucianism Kathleen Wright \ Bibliography \ List of Contributors \ Index \