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The thesis strives to introduce and outline a new understanding of sociology based on the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer. The aim of the thesis is to differentiate the hermeneutical approach from the scientific and from the interpretative paradigm in particular. Hermeneutics does see sociology neither as a science nor as a science of specific (interpretative, hermeneutical, understanding or critical) type, which must be cleared out in the context of the sociological metatheory. I explain the key differences between scientific and hermeneutic point of view according to the works of Martin Heidegger and H.-G. Gadamer. Heidegger is instructive for me in the way he reveals the metaphysical roots of modern science. He discloses science as a specific and historical dependent understanding of the world and the man within it. Gadamer's hermeneutics then proclaims understanding as a universal and more fundamental aspect of human being-in-the-world and expounds it with the notion of language, dialogue, the hermeneutical circle, the logic of question and answer, tradition or sensus communis. After differentiating hermeneutics from existing sociological streams of thought I try to use Gadamer's concepts to conceive of society and sociology. I propose to understand society as a historical...

In his Truth and Method, Gadamer explains that subjectivity is the everyday understanding that allows us to engage with the world. Gadamer identifies three main aspects that effect our understanding, namely history, language and dialogue. Dystopian fiction is in a unique position to portray how systems of societal control affect and effect understanding, and thus subjectivity, because dystopian fiction primarily explores societies rather than only individuals. This dissertation applies Gadamer’s framework of subjectivity to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World to analyse their portrayals of subjectivity critically. Huxley’s imagined world of test-tube births, rampant consumerism, feelies and orgy-porgies depicts a subjectivity that is nearly completely controlled through the manipulation of history, language and dialogue, with the exception of a few rebellious characters. But Orwell’s Oceania is far grimmer, and the systems of control in place to manipulate history, language and dialogue create a harsh environment in which Winston Smith, the protagonist, struggles to assert his individuality, his own subjectivity, until the liberating sexual relationship he has with Julia. Although both novels depict stringent measures of control, the possibility of rebellion is present in the worlds depicted in both novels, suggesting that despite the manipulation around subjectivity’s three main pillars, as identified by Gadamer, something else provides the impetus for the characters’ understanding of rebellion. Therefore, the study also analyses the characters’ pre-understandings, as explained by Nietzsche and Heidegger, as sources for a wider framework. Through the novels’ portrayals of rebellion, these pre-understandings are shown to complement and inform Gadamer’s framework of subjectivity. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / English / MA (English) / Unrestricted

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Ce travail vise à rendre compte des pensées de Hans-Georg Gadamer et de Matthew Lipman en regard de la notion de dialogue et de ses implications, puis à mettre en parallèle les deux pensées. La notion de dialogue est premièrement étudiée sous l'angle épistémologique — puisque le dialogue s'avère être une recherche de savoir. On voit alors que le dialogue vise un type de savoir particulier : la compréhension. Le dialogue est aussi étudié sous l'angle éthique car la compréhension semble s'incarner dans une manière d'être particulière. Ce travail vise ainsi à expliciter la compréhension mise en oeuvre dans le dialogue chez Gadamer et chez Lipman, en passant entre autres par l'étude du langage, de l'art et de la logique.

Gadamer takes the experience of art as his epistemological clue to uncover the ontological ground of the human sciences, so they need not mimic the natural sciences. Art is for him exemplary in going beyond the methodical application of general laws and taking seriously the particular case at hand, unafraid of exploring the play of truth and the truth of play. Gadamer's hermeneutic project entails active listening in a dialogue where understanding is an event, and thus cannot be forced by fitting the other, the text or the artwork into a pre-established framework. Such an attempt, perhaps implicit in Greek metaphysics, is evident in the Western pattern of technological domination through objectification of phenomena. This is what Gadamer seeks to counter by recovering humanist Bildung as a cultivated consciousness encompassing ail directions at once in a praxis of empathy, thereby unseating the methodological privilege of theory to allow for a lived experience of the event of truth. / Gadamer prend l'expérience de l'art comme indice épistémologique pour l'élucidation du fondement ontologique propre des sciences humaines, en vertu duquel celles-ci n'ont pas à imiter les sciences naturelles. L'art lui en fournit le modèle, en ce qu'il ne s'arrête pas à l'application méthodique de lois générales et prend au sérieux chaque cas particulier, ne craignant pas d'explorer le jeu de la vérité et la vérité du jeu. Son projet herméneutique fait appel à une écoute active, en un dialogue où la compréhension est un événement qui survient librement, et non en faisant entrer de force dans un cadre préétabli l'autre, le texte ou l'oeuvre d'art. Une telle tentative, en germe dans la métaphysique grecque, a livré ses fruits amers dans la posture occidentale de domination technologique par objectivation des phénomènes. Gadamer cherche à la contrer en ayant recours aux ressources de la Bildung humaniste comme conscience cultivée s'étendant dans toutes les directions à la fois en une praxis à base d'empathie, détrônant par là le privilège méthodologique de la théorie pour lui substituer l'expérience de la vérité comme événement de vie.

In this dissertation, I apply Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics to examine interpretations of the food-drug relationship within the contexts of health and medicine. Assumptions regarding the relationship between these categories undergird a substantial academic discourse and function as key components in worldviews beyond the academy. Despite this, little work has been done in foregrounding them to allow for critique and consideration of alternative perspectives. Unearthing philosophical assumptions within various fields, epistemic systems, and regulatory bodies, I classify food-drug interpretations into two main categories: dichotomous interpretations of the categories of "food" and "drugs" as ontologically distinct, and continuum-based interpretations where these categories overlap. Rather than arguing for a single appropriate way of understanding the food-drug relationship, my project aims to disclose the complexities of both sets of interpretations, illustrating their virtues and vices, and underscoring the need for people to call their own interpretations into question while taking seriously those of others. The dialogical structure of philosophical hermeneutics provides a useful foundation for dialogue within and between dichotomous and continuum-based interpretations. We do not have unmediated access to a mind-independent reality, the terms "food" and "drugs" do not necessarily refer to natural kinds, and all interpretations likely have different degrees of strengths and blind spots. Food-drug interpretations are bound up with larger worldviews, holistic systems that generate meaning for their adherents. Granting this, conversation partners can seek to gain a clearer picture of differing interpretations, what they can learn from these interpretations, and how they can interrogate their own interpretive modes.

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La presente investigación tiene como objetivo principal mostrar que los conceptos hermenéuticos de comprensión y lenguaje que fundamentan la hermenéutica filosófica de Hans-Georg Gadamer tienen consecuencias sustanciales y poco reconocidas en el ámbito de la filosofía práctica. Dichas consecuencias nos permitirán mostrar, además, que hay una reflexión ética y política en el pensamiento gadameriano, que tiene su origen en su obra principal Verdad y método. Fundamentos para una hermenéutica filosófica (1960) y que sigue desarrollándose hasta su obra tardía. Al respecto, debemos considerar que realizaremos nuestra investigación teniendo como referente principal esta obra capital de Gadamer. No obstante, haremos referencia también a diversos artículos, ensayos y conferencias sobre filosofía práctica que Gadamer escribió hasta 40 años después de VM, pues aquellos dan continuidad o esclarecen los conceptos propios de su pensamiento hermenéutico, y por tanto, nos ayudarán a matizar nuestro planteamiento sobre la relación entre la hermenéutica y la filosofía práctica.