Thesis advisor: John Sallis / In comparing hermeneutic application to Aristotle's concept of phronêsis, Hans-Georg Gadamer insists that historical interpretation is not just a theoretical but also a practical task pertaining to human conduct as such. It is said to involve a similar level of self-understanding that acknowledges one's historical and linguistic situation, bearing strong connections to the intersubjective exercise of judgment and the development of freedom. This dissertation investigates these claims by presenting a detailed analysis of Gadamer's concepts of historical effect [Wirkungsgeschichte] and the reflective consciousness thereof [wirkungsgeschichtliches Bewusstsein]. I delineate Gadamer's position in part through engagement with contemporary debates and misunderstandings of his stance, and in part by setting it in contrast with several central figures who influenced his notions of tradition and freedom: Kant, Hegel, and Heidegger. This contrasting move helps on the one hand to reveal just how fruitful Gadamer's concepts are, and on the other to underscore that Gadamer enacts the very dialogical relation to tradition that he elucidates in his hermeneutics. On the basis of these developments, it is possible to see more clearly the ethical relevance Gadamer takes hermeneutics to have, and to grasp in particular the importance he places upon historical engagement within the humanities. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

A organização das ecovilas desafia o conceito de comunidade, tanto no campo da Sociologia quanto da Filosofia. A definição formal identifica as ecovilas como comunidades intencionais, tradicionais ou rurais resultantes de projetos coletivos e com o objetivo de regenerar o ambiente social e natural. Esta definição é produzida paradoxalmente por uma grande corporação, a Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) detém a legitimidade da enunciação do que significa ser uma ecovila, e certifica experiências ao redor do mundo. Esta pesquisa problematiza a apropriação do termo comunidade pelo movimento das ecovilas, a partir de duas perspectivas: a primeira é teórica e analisa a literatura produzida pela GEN; a segunda é empírica e compreensiva, produzida através de observação participante numa ecovila situada no sul do Brasil. A conclusão situa as ecovilas como manifestação comunitária contemporânea. Isto quer dizer que ecovilas sobrevivem em meio a contradições. Enquanto o discurso contido no material produzido pela GEN apresenta indícios de uma concepção romântica da comunidade, o caráter de sua precipitação fenomênica se situa numa espécie de interstício social e organizacional, lugar em que a experiência do ser-em-comum e a propriedade vivem no limite de uma síntese impossível. / The ecovillage organization challenges the concept of community in the field of Sociology as well as in Philosophy. The formal definition identifies ecovillages as intentional, traditional or rural communities resulting from collective projects and aiming to regenerate the social and natural environment. This definition is produced paradoxically by a large corporation, Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) holds the legitimacy of the enunciation of what it means to be an ecovillage and certifies experiences around the world. This research problematizes the appropriation of the term community by the movement of the ecovillage, from two perspectives: the first is theoretical and analyzes the literature produced by GEN; the second is empirical and comprehensive, produced through participant observation in an ecovillage situated in the south of Brazil. The conclusion places ecovillages as a contemporary community manifestation. This means that ecovillages survive amid contradictions. While the discourse contained in the material produced by GEN presents a romantic conception of the community, the character of its phenomenal precipitation lies in a kind of social and organizational interstice, a place where the experience of being-in-common and property live in the limit of an impossible synthesis.

by Chow Wai Yin. / Thesis (M.Div.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-81). / Acknowledgments / Abstract / Introduction --- p.1 / Section 1 / Chapter Chapter 1 --- A brief history of biblical interpretation development --- p.5 / Chapter 1. --- A brief historical development of biblical interpretation --- p.5 / Chapter 1.1. --- Biblical interpretation in the early church: Hermeneutics of Tradition / Chapter 1.2. --- Biblical interpretation in the modern age: Hermeneutics of Understanding / Chapter 1.3. --- Biblical interpretation in the contemporary world: Hermeneutics of Existence / Chapter 2. --- The development of the notion of textuality from the early church to contemporary discussion --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1. --- Author is the only meaning of the text / Chapter 2.2. --- Readers are part of the texts / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Ricoeur's theory of text --- p.14 / Chapter 1. --- Background to Ricoeur's philosophy --- p.14 / Chapter 1.1. --- Garbriel Marcel / Chapter 1.2. --- German philosophy / Chapter 2. --- Phase I: Symbols and Hermeneutics --- p.15 / Chapter 2.1. --- The starting point of Ricoeur's hermeneutics: Hermeneutics of Suspicion and Hermeneutics of Retrieval / Chapter 2.2. --- The structure of symbol: Symbol and Hermeneutics / Chapter 3. --- Phase II: Texts and Hermeneutics --- p.19 / Chapter 3.1. --- Sassure's language system / Chapter 3.2. --- Opposed language system by Discourse / Chapter 3.3. --- The traits of a text / Chapter 4. --- The interpretative process of the text --- p.25 / Section 2 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Contributions of Ricoeur's 'referentiality' to protestant evangelical's understanding of revelation --- p.28 / Chapter 1. --- Protestant evangelical's understanding of revelation --- p.28 / Chapter 1.1. --- Protestant evangelical's understanding of revelation is in relation to the bible / Chapter 1.2. --- Criticism of the propositional of revelation / Chapter 2. --- Ricoeur's understanding on revelation --- p.30 / Chapter 2.1. --- The nature of biblical texts / Chapter 2.2. --- Can revelation through biblical texts include the notion of inter- personal address from God? / Chapter 2.3. --- Truth is embedded in poetic language / Chapter 3. --- Religious language Vs poetic language --- p.37 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Contributions of Ricoeur's theory of text to Historical-critical approach --- p.40 / Chapter 1. --- The Historical-critical approach --- p.40 / Chapter 2. --- Ricoeur's view of history --- p.43 / Chapter 2.1. --- History is the work of emplotment / Chapter 2.2. --- The nature of historical narrative / Chapter 3. --- Ricoeur's view of historical narrative in the bible --- p.48 / Chapter 4. --- The discrepancy between Ricoeur's understanding of the role of the reader and that in historical-critical approach --- p.50 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Contributions of Ricoeur's theory of text to Bultmann's demythologization --- p.52 / Chapter 1. --- Bultmann's general interpretation --- p.52 / Chapter 2. --- From general hermeneutics to specifically theological hermeneutics --- p.53 / Chapter 3. --- Bultmann's view of myth and demythologization --- p.53 / Chapter 3.1. --- Bultmann's view of myth / Chapter 3.2. --- The role of kerygma / Chapter 4. --- A critique of Bultmann's demythologization from Ricoeur's theory of text --- p.58 / Chapter 4.1. --- The distanciation of the kerygma / Chapter 4.2. --- Understanding without explanation / Chapter 4.3. --- The problem of mythological and nonmythological language / Chapter 5. --- The role of myth in Ricoeur's hermeneutical theory --- p.61 / Chapter 6. --- General hermeneutics or theological hermeneutics? --- p.63 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.66 / Chapter 1 --- A conclusion of Ricoeur's theory of text --- p.66 / Chapter 2. --- Contributions of Ricoeur's theory of text to biblical interpretation --- p.74 / Bibliography --- p.78

This thesis is a phenomenology of understanding in the context of development practice in East Africa. It is framed by stories of my life and work, experiences rooted in European traditions and provoked and expanded in encounter with African traditions. My question began with methods for dealing with poverty and suffering. Even with all my goodwill and education and the might of large institutions behind me, I found myself part of a series of analytical interventions that seemed to make the problem worse. Yet I would like to contribute to a world where people live together well. This thesis is the story of how I laid siege to this conundrum, working on it from various angles until I saw development intervention for the incoherent prejudice that it was. How could something as co-operative as living well with others be achieved by something so domineering as methodical intervention? Western development consciousness has not noticed that other cultures cannot and will not bear such hubris. So I questioned the notion that a good method (or a good institution, analytical technique or moral code) is the first requirement for fair co-existence. Development, I realised, is conversations that we join, not instructions that we give. I asked instead how I and others come to agree, a question that many people in my profession have never asked. In a close examination of the way I have come to understandings in my own life, I draw on the work of German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer. His philosophical hermeneutics bring together multiple aspects of understanding: its consciousness, historicity, eventfulness, and linguistic and conversational nature. With the help of African thinkers, I gain more perspective - I take part in understandings that are held, provoked and renewed in conversation across time, geography and entire societies. Through the journey represented by this thesis I have come to understand that understanding speaks the world, its history, diversity and potential. I have come to know that from understanding comes method, not the other way around. It is an insight that has profound implications for those of us who work in the development field.

The problem that this thesis seeks to address is the hermeneutic tension between practical reason and technology. According to hermeneutics, the types of knowledge associated with practical understanding incorporate questions of the self and lived experience. In contrast, the types of knowledge and capability associated with modern technology are independent of questions of self-understanding. Technical approaches to practical dilemmas produce generalizable, detachable solutions, thereby disavowing the central role of hermeneutic appropriation in the process of understanding meaning. If a technology works in the same way across different contexts and applications, the notion of an interpreting, appropriating self seems superfluous to the question of technology. However, following an analysis of Paul Ricoeur’s distinctive understandings of hermeneutic distanciation, appropriation, and technique, I argue that technologies can become objects of hermeneutic engagement once we recognize their variable and uncertain nature at the practical level. Using Ricoeur’s conception of the productive circle between distanciation and belonging, the alienating distances associated with technologies can be re-read as moments of distanciation, i.e., as reflective outcomes of practical engagements that, in turn, project new possibilities for action an understanding. This means that our practical self-understanding is as bound to techniques and technologies as it is to more conventional hermeneutic objects like a text, narrative or artwork. For Ricoeur, hermeneutic techniques are meaningful because they reveal possibilities for action that would otherwise remain concealed. Likewise, subjects engaging with technologies develop unanticipated applications and functions at the practical level through appropriating technologies in novel, creative ways. In this way, practical self-understanding and technologies depend on one another for development. This mutual, interpretive interaction reveals a hermeneutic circle between the practical self and the technical devices and artefacts that mediate self-understanding at a distance.

The first step that I took in preparing myself to undertake what is in essence a piece of epistemological research was to divide the psychological therapies into two: the potentiality paradigm and the pathology paradigm. The former is based upon the potentiality model articulated by person-centred theorists like Dave Mearns and Brian Thorne, which is essentially a growth model, whilst the latter reflects a form of therapy that recognises people according to what may be considered 'wrong with' or 'deficient about' them, such as operates in the disciplines of medicine and clinical psychology. The main focus of this piece of research was to determine the epistemology that is at work with what actually goes on in the practice of potentiality paradigm therapy. In order to achieve this, I set about identifying, reading, analysing and eventually coding the most epistemologically rich writings that I could find from mainstream authors on potentiality paradigm therapy from the professional and the academic literature. It became clear from this analysis that the heart of what was actually going on in the practice of potentiality paradigm therapy as articulated in these theoretical writings could be coded into three main discourses: an experiential discourse, a relational discourse and a hermeneutic discourse, each of which I have considered to represent an epistemological discourse for the purposes of this piece of research. My next question was to ask myself how these discourses set about articulating the potentiality paradigm with respect to the practice of the psychological therapies, and the answer came back that they articulated the potentiality paradigm best when they worked concertedly rather than discretely. Indeed, it soon became apparent that the human brain integrates and synthesises the data that it receives by way of these three central discourses, and so it seemed only appropriate that I should work towards expressing these findings by creating a qualitative meta-synthesis of these three discourses: the experiential, the relational and the hermeneutic, which is exactly what I did. The epistemological mechanism by which these three discourses are integrated and synthesised needs to reflect the way in which the human brain integrates and synthesises the data that it receives, and the name given to this epistemological mechanism is dialectical constructivism. This is included along with the three epistemological discourses - the experiential, the relational and the hermeneutic - in the creative and interpretive synthesis in which this piece of research culminates, and is followed by an illustrative worked example showing how these discourses articulate the potentiality paradigm - concertedly - with respect to the practice of the psychological therapies. One of the advantages of applying this meta-model to the way in which we look at potentiality paradigm therapy is that it may be used to free us up to practice in the more dialogical ways which have been becoming increasingly favoured by practitioners in recent times. With our view of potentiality paradigm therapy mediated by this meta-model, we may find it easier to traverse across what many practitioners have tended to view as theoretical boundaries. It could also be viewed as a move towards a more functional and less structural form of governance or regulation, as expressed by Mearns and Thorne.

<p>The idea of the essay is to give a glimpse of the how the tranfunction of the ninth grade students’ grades in transition from high school to the gymnasium. The model used in the analysis is hermeneutic and this has permeated the paper strong. The issues I wanted the paper would answer was: What problems may exist in the assessment of pupils at the end of grade nine in Swedish and mathematics? How does this affect the transition between high school and the gymnasium? What individual differences can arise?</p><p>The problems surrounding the assessment of students in the ninth grade are not only the objectives of the different rates that affect the assessment. Students' relationship with teachers is an important factor that plays into how they are assessed. The high school teachers admit that students can get approved in Swedish A and Mathematics A, although they have not achieved all the objectives of the substances. Students cannot see any connection between this and the difficulties they have to cope with the courses in Swedish A and Mathematics A. Gymnasium teachers, however believe that this may be a factor that students do not reach the intended targets.</p><p>The analysis also shows that it is difficult for teachers to know what skills students bring to school. The two high school teachers think that the knowledge they assessed and rated is not necessarily the consolidation of the pupil. It is very possible that the knowledge which they exhibit is constant. The survey also shows how students can be affected both positively and negatively by the problems associated with a nicer grad than they diserve. The two student examples highlighted in this paper shows, for example, that students may have trouble keeping up with the teaching and understand what teachers go through this saw Simon as very tough. It can also give students the benefits when they get the chance to attend the gymnasium and continue their studies immediately after high school.</p>

This dissertation argues that a biblical theology of the priestly mediation of the new covenant is necessary for understanding the extent of the atonement and that such a study will result in a clear affirmation of definite atonement. Chapter 1 shows how theologians have truncated Christ's priestly office and how biblical scholars have neglected to apply the priesthood to matters of the atonement's efficacy and extent. This chapter validates the need for a whole Bible typology of the priestly work of Christ. Chapter 2 proposes an approach to typology that sets forth the methodological commitments of this dissertation. It argues that typology should be prospective in its orientation, Christotelic in its aim, and covenantal in its structure. It explains these three facets at length, helping the reader to understand how the dissertation uses typology. Chapter 3 introduces the priestly prototype in the person and work of Adam. Next, it asserts that Noah and Abraham functions as priestly types when they offer sacrifice, mediate covenants, and offer blessings. With each type, theological reflections are given in conversation with the New Testament fulfillment of Adam, Noah, and Abraham. Chapter 4 examines the legislation of the priesthood. It asserts that three functions of the priesthood emerge in the Law of Moses: The priest is (1) a Kohen Victor, who defends the holiness of God's sanctuary, (2) a Kohen Mediator, who offers sacrifice for atonement, and a (3) Kohen Teacher, who teaches the covenant community the torah of God. This threefold orientation provides the authorized "mold" (Vorbild) by which the priestly type (Nachbild) can be formed and evaluated. Chapter 5 argues that the prophets condemned the Levitical priests for their disobedience to God's law and their failure to fulfill their assigned duties (guarding, sacrificing, and teaching). The prophets' criticisms function in this dissertation as an inspired rubric for evaluating theological proposals for Christ's priesthood and the atonement. In particular, this chapter argues that general atonement does not match the stipulations of the priesthood, and is therefore liable to prophetic censure. Chapter 6 outlines the priestly expectations of the Former and Latter Prophets. It suggests that the eschatological priest is a royal figure from the line of David who defends God's holiness (Kohen Victor), sacrifices himself for his people (Kohen Mediator), and instructs the covenant community with absolute efficacy (Kohen Teacher). On the basis of these prophetic anticipations, this chapter argues that the priest of the new covenant will provide a definite and particular atonement. Chapter 7 shows from the New Testament how Christ Jesus fulfills all of the Old Testament promises in regards to the priesthood. Specifically, it demonstrates the threefold ministry of Christ--Kohen Victor, Kohen Mediator, and Kohen Teacher. Following the chronological development of Christ's priestly ministry (i.e., on earth, on the cross, in heaven), it will argue that the atonement's extent must be particular and definite, not general and indefinite. Chapter 8 summarizes the biblical theological data espoused in chapters 3 to 7. It applies the priesthood to five areas of systematic theology (i.e., theological hermeneutics, the extent of the atonement, the person of Christ, the universal offer of the gospel, and reconciliation of the cosmos). It concludes with an appeal for holding definite atonement on the basis of Christ's priesthood. In addition, it suggests various avenues for doing future research on the priesthood of Christ.

This thesis’ task is to reinterpret Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy of the will, hermeneutics, and study of metaphor from a perspective that speaks to what his early work conceptualized as a poetics of freedom. Poetics, for Ricoeur, becomes a mode of expression capable of representing and illuminating what he considers the essential paradox of our human condition: a will that is both free and bound, “set free as freedom and responsible in its very deliverance.” A poetics of freedom, Ricoeur conceptualized in the beginning of his career, would be a mediation through which we perceive a tensional reconciliation of our conflicted natures, “a linguistic register suitable for speaking of liberated freedom and liberated man in his existential concreteness and totality.” Ricoeur, however, never developed the poetics of freedom beyond its original conceptualization. Through an interpretive analysis of Ricoeur's work, I reorient his later works on metaphor and hermeneutics towards the concerns that dominated the philosophy of the will and the existential philosophy to which it belongs. This study of Ricoeur’s philosophy of being occurs in discourse with a poetic text, Dante’s Commedia. The Commedia, I argue, is a text whose poetry explicitly and implicitly discloses the importance of hermeneutics and poetics in the arrival at self-understanding. The correlations that arise between its aesthetic discourse and Ricoeur’s contemporary perspective illuminate what I consider to be at the core of the philosophy of being: a primordial tension of selfhood conceptualized in terms of the dialectical relations that arise between freedom and nature, between objectivity and subjectivity, and between perspective and meaning; or in Dante’s terms, between my life and la nostra vita (our life).

This thesis’ task is to reinterpret Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy of the will, hermeneutics, and study of metaphor from a perspective that speaks to what his early work conceptualized as a poetics of freedom. Poetics, for Ricoeur, becomes a mode of expression capable of representing and illuminating what he considers the essential paradox of our human condition: a will that is both free and bound, “set free as freedom and responsible in its very deliverance.” A poetics of freedom, Ricoeur conceptualized in the beginning of his career, would be a mediation through which we perceive a tensional reconciliation of our conflicted natures, “a linguistic register suitable for speaking of liberated freedom and liberated man in his existential concreteness and totality.” Ricoeur, however, never developed the poetics of freedom beyond its original conceptualization. Through an interpretive analysis of Ricoeur's work, I reorient his later works on metaphor and hermeneutics towards the concerns that dominated the philosophy of the will and the existential philosophy to which it belongs. This study of Ricoeur’s philosophy of being occurs in discourse with a poetic text, Dante’s Commedia. The Commedia, I argue, is a text whose poetry explicitly and implicitly discloses the importance of hermeneutics and poetics in the arrival at self-understanding. The correlations that arise between its aesthetic discourse and Ricoeur’s contemporary perspective illuminate what I consider to be at the core of the philosophy of being: a primordial tension of selfhood conceptualized in terms of the dialectical relations that arise between freedom and nature, between objectivity and subjectivity, and between perspective and meaning; or in Dante’s terms, between my life and la nostra vita (our life).