[xmca] We are all "On the way"

[Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>]

Christine and Robert

I see some complementary explorations exploring contradiction and paradox
whether in dialectical or hermeneutical traditions.
Robert, you mentioned that dialectics is NOT a method or set of principles:

[ROBERT] What makes dialectical thinking so difficult to
explain is that it can only be seen in practice.
It is not a ‘method ’or a set of principles”
(Spencer and Krauze. 1996, p, 23).
Dialectical thinking according to Marx is
much more than "on the one hand and on the other hand"
(Marx- Engels, 1953, p. 122) dialectical thought is focused
on the process of moving from existence to essence,
from biological being to self-actualization through praxis,
from outward activity to inward reflection then to further activity.
Come to think of it, that sounds a lot like Vygotsky too.

This may be seen as a particular *way* or tradition or perspective of
moving from existence to essence.

Christine, you reminded me of Gadamer's concept of hermeneutics as a 3rd
*way* to move through existence when you wrote:

 I haven't found writing on the historical development of thinking
from that point in history - and I'm not equipped for such a project.
so for me the stance is that of your 3rd form - which is meaning full
as 'bracketing' to me, it's an impossibility -overcoming recourse (
value -experiencing) - there is no panacea to a bridge for such a gap
( Just as is 'working to produce' might not have 'bridges' across
disciplines and traditions.

I do wonder if Gadamer's notion of *understanding* may offer a particular
*way* to proceed, different from dialectical notions but with overlapping
questions and answers and ways of proceeding within dialogical
conversations. Both traditions do explore the historical development of
thinking that is not linear but rather is a *living phenomena* [organic??]

Gadamer's 3rd form speaks to being *on the way*: This notion emphasizes
there is NOT *the* hermeneutical way but rather that hermeneutical
approaches are developing through time. Gadamer [and Hoy's interpretation
of Gadamer] make a distinction between Gadamer and previous notions of the
hermeneutical tradition.

[GADAMER'S 3rd form]


This form of I-Thou relations within history has a different form of

hermeneutic experience. Unlike the 1st form it does not treat the other or

the past as an object classifiable into properties [1st form]

OR

as  radically other [subjectivity or time] with values no longer shared

with the present. Hermeneutic consciousness lets the tradition [as a form

of consciousness] speak to the present and realizes this speaking is

telling the present something about itself. Gadamer calls this form the

*consciousness of standing within a still operant history* [awkward phrase

but no easy translation].

THIS consciousness [or self-consciousness] is most properly hermeneutical.

As expressed within I-Thou relationships it neither treats the other person

as an object or a means, nor ries to master the Other by suspending his
right to meaningful statement.

On the contrary,  this I-Thou relation is OPEN  and Gadamer says without

this OPENNESS there can be no real human contact. He writes,

"To BELONG together [Zueinandergehoren] is always at the same time to be

able to listen to the other [Auf-ein-ander-Horenkonnen]

Understanding for Gadamer is always a form of dialogue. Hermeneutical forms

of consciousness are language phenomenon within a cultural tradition or

form of life.

This approach or practice, when applied, avoids the necessity of finding a

*bridge* for the *gap* between past and present.  There is no need to posit

some third term such as psychological empathy to provide a common link

between closed off periods of time [or between two subjectivities]

THIS 3rd form of consciousness [the concretization of hermeneutical

consciousness]  is NOT THE OBJECT of hermeneutical understanding, but is

the language, the MEDIUM, the FORM in which the understanding occurs. This

form of consciousness IS to BE in a world [a form of life, a tradition]
[another notion of being and existence].


 This preamble is a way to situate Gadamer's understanding that
understanding doesn't require taking opposed positions. When he was asked
to comment on his debate with Habermas, he answered,

"I mean that we [Habermas and Gadamer] hold no 'opposed' positions, rather
that we are all 'on the way', even when we resort to writing'. Whether one
reads something written - whether it is something like a poem by Goethe, or
lines of verse scribbled down in the moonlight or found in a book - the  is
not the first one addressed."

In reflecting on that well-known debate between Gadamer and Habermas [which
was a publicly argued written dialogue, a great deal of interest was
raised. Then Gadamer goes on to reflect that people want Habermas and
himself to engage in such a conversation again. His answer to this request
is that conversations are not the *kind* of thing that one can program. The
"written conversation" that occurred was,

" an especially fortunate constellation, consisting of comprehensive common
elements shared by many others, elements that could be brought into the
written conversation from both sides."

Gadamer, in exploring dialogical conversation [written and spoken] believes
our task is to *relearn* what the Greeks showed us, namely,

"to summon up the imaginative power of LIVING language for conceptual
thinking. This doesn't mean that we should adopt Greek philosophy, but it
does mean that we SHOULD [value presupposition] learn from it how to think
in concepts with the help of our own spoken language".

{These quotes are from a conversation between Richard Kearney and Gadamer
in the book "Debates in Continental Philosophy Conversations with
Contempory Thinkers}

The exploration of paradox, contradiction, ambiguity, taking contrasting
value positions, all proceeding  WITHIN plural traditions in conversation
with the "other" seems to be one particular value presupposition that can
facilitate moving from existence to essence [as a developing  and
historically living phenomena].

Larry
__________________________________________
_____
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca