Wednesday, April 22, 2009

On Hermenutics

I remember Professor Scult once saying that Hermenutics was an ethical practice. I get that very stong sense from Davey as well. I my understanding of Hermenutics from reading Davey is that it is a philosophical, interpretive approach to living life itself. It cannot exist without the Other. Hermenutics is about reconciling the subjective, first-person experience of experience itself with not only the objective, final truth (which it concedes can never be known and may not even exist) and the experience of the Other - the people who have not shared "my" experience and thus experience things in the world from a different perspective. In a sense, it is about understanding differences, and how they arise (cultural, historical, religious, etc.), but it also goes above and beyonf that. It seeks to make the individual broaden his horizons and thus be able to live a more full, human, and complete life. 

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