Hermeneutics (AP3600P)

Content

This unit explores issues in hermeneutics from a philosophical perspective, keeping in mind the engagement of that perspective with the theological in the interpretation of biblical and other texts. Following a survey of traditional hermeneutic models, the unit addresses modern developments, considering Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, Gadamer and Ricoeur, and the contributions of structuralists, poststructuralists and others, while engaging the following questions: What meanings of the term "hermeneutics" link antiquity to modernity? What accounts of truth and meaning emerge from the definitions of hermeneutics that modern philosophy has sequentially offered? Included here are issues of how textual meaning might be authoritatively determined, and whether an adequate "explanation of explanation" is to be had.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

18 points in Philosophy at Level 2

Pedagogy

Lectures and Tutorials; Online module with guided online discussion fora.

Indicative Bibliography

1. Bleicher, Josef (ed). Contemporary Hermeneutics: Hermeneutics as Method, Philosophy, and Critique. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980
2. Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.
3. Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Truth and Method. Trans. Willliam Glen Doepel. 2nd Ed. London: Sheed and Ward, 1979.
4. Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time: A Translation of Sein and Zeit. Trans. Joan Stambaugh. Albany, NY: SUNY, 1996.
5. Jasper, David. A Short Introduction to Hermeneutics. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004.
6. Jensen, Alexander S. Theological Hermeneutics. London: SCM Press, 2007.
7. Mueller- Vollmer, Kurt (ed).The Hermeneutics Reader. New York: Continuum, 2006.
8. Palmer, Richard E. Hermeneutics: Interpretation Theory in Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, and Gadamer. Chicago: Northwestern 9. University Press, 1969. (recommended for purchase).
9. Schneiders, S.M. The Revelatory Text: Interpreting the New Testament as Sacred Scripture. San Francisco: Harper, 1991.
10. Schmidt, Lawrence K. Understanding Hermeneutics. Stocksfield, UK: Acumen, 2006.
11. Wilson, Barrie A (compiler). About interpretation: from Plato to Dilthey: A Hermeneutic Anthology. New York: Peter Lang, 1989.

Assessment