This thesis shows how democratic politics requires a commitment to pluralism as engagement and encounter of the other in their otherness. I contend that it is necessary to commit to such an idea of pluralism because of the problem of incomplete understanding. I establish this premise by drawing on Hans-Georg Gadamer’s account of human finitude. Based on this premise, I argue that the instantiation of Gadamer’s principle of openness leads democratic politics to pluralism as engagement and encounter of the other. Further, I develop accounts of asymmetric reciprocity, reflexivity, and agonism as modes of democratic politics that instantiate the principle of openness. In chapter 1, I establish discourse as a necessary element for democratic politics by drawing from the way Jurgen Habermas uses ‘discourse ethics’ to address the problems of understanding in plural societies. In chapter 2, I demonstrate how incomplete understanding poses a problem for discourse and gives rise to interpretive conflicts by drawing from Gadamer’s account of human finitude. Here I also develop an account of openness as a suitable principle for beings with incomplete understanding based on Gadamer’s idea of hermeneutical experience. In chapters 3-5, I develop accounts of asymmetric reciprocity, reflexivity, and agonism as modes of democratic politics that instantiate the principle of openness. I do so by drawing from Iris Young’s, John Dryzek’s, and Chantal Mouffe’s approaches to the problems that plurality poses to discourse ethics and democratic politics.

Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie were the most successful British women writers of their time. Christie and Blyton were contemporaries, living and writing in the United Kingdom during the first half of the twentieth century. This study takes into consideration these similarities in its examination of the depiction of dominant discourses in relation to emergent, alternative and oppositional discourses in their writing. This thesis suggests that while Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie offer alternatives to the dominant patriarchal discourses of the British Empire in the first half of the twentieth century, they show allegiance, too, to the dominant discourses of their time. Specific consideration is given to the portrayal of discourses concerned with gender, feminism, classism, British colonialism, racism, and xenophobia in their writing. The work of Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie was extremely popular in their time and still is today. Their important contribution to popular literature in England in the early twentieth century justifies a study of a selection of their work in relation to detective fiction and children’s literature as well as to studies of social history that include the investigation of how dominant discourse is both endorsed and challenged. / Thesis (DLitt)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / English / unrestricted

This study strives to chart the occurrence of mystic and kabbalistic influences inthe textual liturgic material of Jewish prayer books - siddurim - in Stockholm,during the 19th century as well as of today. Two prayer books, both focusing onthe prayer service for sabbath and festivals, were studied and compared to amaterial corresponding to a more traditionally inclined ashkenaz liturgy. Alongsidethis comparative method, the study made use of the hermeneutics of Hans-GeorgeGadamer in order to gain a more thorough understanding of the backgroundleading up to the selection of materials within the Swedish siddurim. This involveda broad historical research of Jewish mysticism, Jewish liturgy and Jewish life inSweden. Furthermore, the reception history theory of Gadamer and Hans-RobertJauss was employed to analyze the reception of mystic and kabbalistic influencesupon the Swedish prayer books, taking in account the ways in which religioustexts are viewed within a certain tradition, depending on theological agendas,historical context, and the intercommunion between these, especially taking thereformist wave of Judaism in the 19th century under consideration. The results andanalysis came to show that, although there had been an extensive purge of explicitkabbalistic materials in the 19th century, texts with very clear connotations tomerkavah mysticism still remained. The siddur in use today has also reintroducedkabbalistic material to the liturgy. Through the lens of reception history theory,mystic and/or kabbalistic influences are shown to be a part of Jewish liturgy inStockholm, sometimes understood as an integral part of a wider liturgic tradition,sometimes as a devotional - but not explicitly esoteric - addition to the prayerservice.

In contemporary, French phenomenology, a debate has arisen concerning whether phenomenology can allow for a certain kind of “theological” consideration. In particular, Jean-Luc Marion argues that the potential of the reduction has not been fully explored and that a full reduction to pure givenness in fact allows one to give an account of the paradoxical experience of the impossible beyond experience, which is described as a phenomenon of revelation and may include a Revelation of God. Marion’s claims have been considered contentious. As I interpret it, the debate plays out between 1) those who also admit that phenomenology can occasion a form of “theological” consideration, but maintain, unlike Marion, that it remains a more existential affirmation of the impossible beyond experience, represented by Jacques Derrida and John Caputo, and 2) those who refuse any role for this impossible beyond experience within phenomenology (and perhaps more generally), and insist that phenomenology be preserved as an essentialist science of the appearances, represented by Dominique Janicaud. I take the positions of Derrida and Caputo, on the one hand, and Janicaud, on the other, to each entail extreme consequences that ought to be avoided—the former resulting in a form of irrationalism and the latter converting phenomenology into a form of pragmatism. Furthermore, I find Marion’s basic claim, that the impossible beyond experience ought to have a role in shaping finite experience, to be worth investigating further. However, Marion concedes too much to the deconstructive position of Derrida and Caputo at the outset, and so I find that the philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer provides an opportunity to correct some of the deficiencies in Marion’s position, but also argue to a similar end as he does. I find that Gadamer’s position incorporates an implicit analogical structure between rational experience and the impossible, thereby permitting one to maintain the impossible as impossible, but also affirm a certain possibility for understanding it.

Most recent studies of Cassian and his writings have examined the monk’s historical contexts, the theology expressed in his texts or his role in the development of monasticism. This dissertation examines the spirituality of Cassian and assesses its value to contemporary Christian communities. By applying a hermeneutical approach to the study of Cassian’s texts, the investigation distinguishes between the spirituality of Cassian, the historical person; the spirituality Cassian conveys in his writings; and Cassian’s spirituality as lived experience. The dissertation argues that Cassian’s spirituality as lived experience, as elicited by Gadamer’s hermeneutical model of conversation between text and interpreter, is valuable to contemporary Christian communities. It offers a spiritual ‘route map’ that can inspire, encourage and guide members of such communities on a spiritual journey that leads to greater intimacy with, and faithfulness to, Christ. The hermeneutical process necessary to appropriate the spirituality of Cassian as lived experience has the potential to dismantle prejudgements and attitudes of superiority and triumphalism often displayed by Christian communities and encourage fresh engagement with the history, traditions and Scriptures of the Church. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / M. Th. (Christian Spirituality)

Taking as its central motif Hans-Georg Gadamer’s claim that “the true locus of hermeneutics is [the] in-between,” this thesis defends Gadamer’s concept of the fusion of horizons as radically interstitial against recent allegations that link his project to Romantic interpretive commensurability. Distancing Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics from both the Romantic hermeneutical approach and the incommensurabilist alternative proposed by John D. Caputo, this study reassesses Gadamer’s contributions toward understanding the other in a manner that avoids both imperious reductions and hyperbolic valorizations of the other’s alterity. Extending this discussion to cross-cultural interpretation, this thesis concludes by arguing for the fusion of horizons as a model for conceiving a new postcolonial space, irreducible to the commensurabilism of colonialism and the incommensurabilism of nativism. To this end, Gadamer is brought into discussion with Homi K. Bhabha, whose work on cultural hybridity offers a striking parallel with Gadamer’s fusion of horizons.

This submission comes in two parts; the written dissertation, Contemporary art: the key issues, and the exhibition Melbourne - Moderne. When taken together they present a discourse on the conditions facing contemporary art practice and one artist’s response to these conditions in the context of Melbourne 2003-2007. (For complete abstract open document)

This thesis explores reasons and disagreement in ethics, and their connection to personal identity. I begin by arguing that reasons are open; what gives them direction is how they feature in my life and weigh with me. Of course, this does not tell us what reasons are available to a person when they act. In this connection I argue against Bernard Williams’ internal reasons thesis, showing that there are occasions when we will want to say someone has a reason to act even though they are unable to see it. Continuing with Williams, I explore moral necessity, drawing also on the works of Winch, Rhees and Cordner, arguing that Williams too readily conflates psychological with ethical limits. In particular, the possibility of recanting what we took to be necessary should inform our view of moral necessity, since it can show that I had misconstrued the nature of the limits I took myself to have reached. Following this use of recantation, I explore narrative in detail, arguing that my narrative is partly constitutive of who I am. My agency is therefore interpretive. This has ramifications for thinkers such as Christine Korsgaard and Jonathan Dancy, whose work I explore in two excursuses. In different ways, both fail to appreciate the significance of our interpretive identities.

Most recent studies of Cassian and his writings have examined the monk’s historical contexts, the theology expressed in his texts or his role in the development of monasticism. This dissertation examines the spirituality of Cassian and assesses its value to contemporary Christian communities. By applying a hermeneutical approach to the study of Cassian’s texts, the investigation distinguishes between the spirituality of Cassian, the historical person; the spirituality Cassian conveys in his writings; and Cassian’s spirituality as lived experience. The dissertation argues that Cassian’s spirituality as lived experience, as elicited by Gadamer’s hermeneutical model of conversation between text and interpreter, is valuable to contemporary Christian communities. It offers a spiritual ‘route map’ that can inspire, encourage and guide members of such communities on a spiritual journey that leads to greater intimacy with, and faithfulness to, Christ. The hermeneutical process necessary to appropriate the spirituality of Cassian as lived experience has the potential to dismantle prejudgements and attitudes of superiority and triumphalism often displayed by Christian communities and encourage fresh engagement with the history, traditions and Scriptures of the Church. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Christian Spirituality)

This work presents a new paradigm for legal hermeneutics, divorced from positivism and hence the legal doctrine. To do so, outlines the doctrinal framework that preceded the construction of the theoretical framework used here , the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer, whose keynote is in opposition to the method as the only means to get to the truth. When entering your analysis itself, seeks to work with the most important concepts, such as tradition, authority, pre-understanding and the fusion of horizons, in order to pave the way to understand what he describes as a circle hermeneutic, a key concept for the demarcation of the proposal developed here. On this, also seeks to make an evolutionary analysis of the proposals of the thinkers that preceded the gadameriano concept. Outlined the substance of philosophical hermeneutics, we proceed to the analysis of its operation in legal interpretation, printing a critical reflection on the understanding in the application of law and, as a corollary, contributing to overcome the positivist paradigm and its aporias and as for the discussion about the legitimacy of judicial decisions. Thus seeks to clarify the contribution of Gadamer to legal thought, from his philosophical hermeneutics to explain, justify and legitimize the path taken by the judge pronouncing judgments. / A presente dissertação apresenta um novo paradigma para a hermenêutica jurídica, divorciado do positivismo e, consequentemente, da dogmática jurídica. Para tanto, delineia o arcabouço doutrinário que antecedeu a construção do marco teórico aqui utilizado, a hermenêutica filosófica de Gadamer, cuja tônica consiste na oposição ao método como único meio para se chegar à verdade. Ao ingressar em sua análise propriamente dita, busca trabalhar com os conceitos mais importantes, a exemplo da tradição, da autoridade, da pré-compreensão e da fusão de horizontes, com a finalidade de sedimentar o caminho para a entender aquilo que ele descreve como círculo hermenêutico, conceito-chave para o deslinde da proposta aqui desenvolvida. Quanto a este, também procura fazer uma análise evolutiva das propostas dos pensadores que precederam ao conceito gadameriano. Delineada a substância da hermenêutica filosófica, parte-se para a análise de seu operar na hermenêutica jurídica, imprimindo uma reflexão crítica sobre a compreensão no âmbito da aplicação do direito e, como corolário, contribuindo para a superação do paradigma positivista e suas aporias, bem como para a discussão acerca da legitimidade das decisões judiciais. Assim, busca explicitar a contribuição de Gadamer para o pensamento jurídico, partindo de sua hermenêutica filosófica para explicar, fundamentar e legitimar o caminho trilhado pelo julgador ao prolatar as decisões judiciais.