Merleau-Ponty, Hermeneutics, and Postmodernism

Merleau-Ponty, Hermeneutics, and Postmodernism

Author: Thomas W. Busch

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 1992-01-01

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 9780791411391

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This book opens up new dimensions in the philosophical thought of Merleau-Ponty and addresses contemporary issues concerning interpretation theory and postmodernity. In Part I the authors employ the texts of Merleau-Ponty to challenge many of assumptions that operate in the current field of hermeneutics. They find in Merleau-Ponty the outline of a hermeneutics of ambiguity that incorporates his accounts of the human body, language, and temporality in working out the concepts of interpretation, context, perspective, truth, and interpersonal transgression. Merleau-Ponty thus enters into a productive dialogue with contemporary thinkers such as Gadamer, Ricoeur, Habermas, Levinas, and Derrida. Part II engages Merleau-Ponty with the "many voices" of postmodernism. Some of the most able Merleau-Ponty interpreters reveal the richness of his work through variant readings. Can Merleau-Ponty be construed as a postmodern thinker, or as a critic of postmodernism? To what extent can the concepts of flesh, reversibility, and ecart be made to function as deconstructive non-concepts? What can Merleau-Ponty contribute toward a postmodern politics? These essays move the discussion from Derrida to Deleuze, Foucault, and Lyotard.


Pentecostal and Postmodern Hermeneutics

Pentecostal and Postmodern Hermeneutics

Author: Bradley Truman Noel

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2010-01-29

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 149827188X

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Pentecostal and Postmodern Hermeneutics seeks to explore the relationship between Pentecostal hermeneutics and Pentecostalism's ability to connect with and evangelize North American youth. As a Postmodern ethos makes its presence increasingly felt in the Western world, no Christian movement should be better positioned to bring the message of Christ to youth and young adults eager to experience the God of miracles and wonders. Recent trends in Pentecostal hermeneutics, however, may actually make the task more difficult. No historical movement has thrived in the long term that has not carefully considered the place of youth and young adults in the vision for the future. While Pentecostalism has been at the forefront of youth ministry in the last several decades, we must also connect Pentecostal academia with evangelism efforts among youth and young adults. This work calls Pentecostal scholars to thoughtfully consider the implications of their work for future generations.


Towards a Post-Modern Understanding of the Political

Towards a Post-Modern Understanding of the Political

Author: A. Bielskis

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2005-08-19

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0230508340

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While claiming that liberalism is the dominant political theory and practice of modernity, this book provides two alternative post-modern theoretical approaches to the political. Concentrating on Nietzsche's and Foucault's work it offers a novel interpretation of their genealogical projects. It argues that genealogy can be applied to analyze different forms of cultural kitsch vis-à-vis the dominant political institutions of consumer capitalism. The problem with consumer capitalism is not so much that it exploits individuals, but that it fosters cheap human existence saturated with the artefacts of kitsch. Contrasting genealogy with hermeneutic philosophy, it calls for a renewal of hermeneutics within the Thomistic tradition.


Heidegger, Art, and Postmodernity

Heidegger, Art, and Postmodernity

Author: Iain D. Thomson

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-04-29

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 1139498975

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Heidegger, Art, and Postmodernity offers a radical new interpretation of Heidegger's later philosophy, developing his argument that art can help lead humanity beyond the nihilistic ontotheology of the modern age. Providing pathbreaking readings of Heidegger's 'The Origin of the Work of Art' and his notoriously difficult Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning), this book explains precisely what postmodernity meant for Heidegger, the greatest philosophical critic of modernity, and what it could still mean for us today. Exploring these issues, Iain D. Thomson examines several postmodern works of art, including music, literature, painting and even comic books, from a post-Heideggerian perspective. Clearly written and accessible, this book will help readers gain a deeper understanding of Heidegger and his relation to postmodern theory, popular culture and art.


Whose Community? Which Interpretation? (The Church and Postmodern Culture)

Whose Community? Which Interpretation? (The Church and Postmodern Culture)

Author: Merold Westphal

Publisher: Baker Academic

Published: 2009-09-01

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1441206655

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In this volume, renowned philosopher Merold Westphal introduces current philosophical thinking related to interpreting the Bible. Recognizing that no theology is completely free of philosophical "contamination," he engages and mines contemporary hermeneutical theory in service of the church. After providing a historical overview of contemporary theories of interpretation, Westphal addresses postmodern hermeneutical theory, arguing that the relativity embraced there is not the same as the relativism in which "anything goes." Rather, Westphal encourages us to embrace the proliferation of interpretations based on different perspectives as a way to get at the richness of the biblical text.


The Ethics of Postmodernity

The Ethics of Postmodernity

Author: Gary B. Madison

Publisher: Northwestern University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 0810113767

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Recently the question of ethics has become a dominant issue for philosophical reflection. In THE ETHICS OF POSTMODERNITY, Gary Madison and Marty Fairbarn have collected instructive and illuminating essays that address the dilemmas left in the wake of the postmodern attack on foundationalism. This collection is a powerful statement about the many directions a post-metaphysical ethics might take.


Transcendentalist Hermeneutics

Transcendentalist Hermeneutics

Author: Richard A. Grusin

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9780822310594

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American literary historians have viewed Ralph Waldo Emerson’s resignation from the Unitarian ministry in 1832 in favor of a literary career as emblematic of a main current in American literature. That current is directed toward the possession of a self that is independent and fundamentally opposed to the “accoutrements of society and civilization” and expresses a Transcendentalist antipathy toward all institutionalized forms of religious observance. In the ongoing revision of American literary history, this traditional reading of the supposed anti-institutionalism of the Transcendentalists has been duly detailed and continually supported. Richard A. Grusin challenges both traditional and revisionist interpretations with detailed contextual studies of the hermeneutics of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Theodore Parker. Informed by the past two decades of critical theory, Grusin examines the influence of the higher criticism of the Bible—which focuses on authorship, date, place of origin, circumstances of composition, and the historical credibility of biblical writings—on these writers. The author argues that the Transcendentalist appeal to the authority of the “self” is not an appeal to a source of authority independent of institutions, but to an authority fundamentally innate.


Herman Melville and the American Calling

Herman Melville and the American Calling

Author: William V. Spanos

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 9780791475645

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Argues that Herman Melville’s later work anticipates the resurgence of an American exceptionalist ethos underpinning the U.S.-led global “war on terror.”


The End of Modernity

The End of Modernity

Author: Gianni Vattimo

Publisher: Polity

Published: 1992-04-08

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9780745609713

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Now available in paperback, this book provides an elegant analysis of the philosophical background to the post-modernity debate. Vattimo focuses on the work of Nietzsche and Heidegger and shows how their bitter criticisms of modern European thought prepared the way for more recent proclamations of the end of the modern era. Vattimo pursues questions central to aesthetics and hermeneutic philosophy and sides with contemporary philosophers such as Gadamer and Rorty in rejecting the search for stable and transcendent foundations for knowledge. Going beyond their work he introduces the notions of 'weak thought' and 'weak ontology' which, he argues, offer a way of 'going beyond' metaphysics by curing philosophy of the modernist disease and by resituating questions of truth and being within the realm of human experience.