Article Title
Abstract
Recently Alain Badiou and Quentin Meillassoux have attacked the core of the phenomenological hermeneutic tradition: its commitment to the finitude of human understanding. If accurate, this critique threatens to render the whole tradition a topic of merely historical interest. Given the depth of the criticism, this essay aims to establish a provisional defense of hermeneutics. After briefly reviewing each critique, it is argued that Badiou and Meillassoux themselves face rather intractable difficulties. These difficulties, then, open the space for a hermeneutic response, which is accomplished largely by drawing on the work of Paul Ricoeur. We close with a suggested program for hermeneutic thought.
Pages
160-179
Recommended Citation
Purcell, L. Sebastian
(2010)
"After Hermeneutics?,"
Symposium (Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy / Revue canadienne de philosophie continentale):
Vol. 14:
Iss.
2, Article 9.
Available at:
http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/symposium/vol14/iss2/9