Strong Hermeneutics - Smith, Nicholas H.

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Résumé :
Strong Hermeneutics presents a compelling case for the importance of hermeneutics in understanding ethics today. It provides a critical comparison of the enlightenment view of ethics with the postmodern or weak view of ethics. The weak view, which Nicholas H. Smith traces back to Nietzsche and identifies in the recent work of Rorty and Lyotard, is skeptical of any universal principles in ethics. The enlightenment view, starting with Kant and taken up in the work of Habermas, casts identity as subject of universal but formal moral constraints.

Smith argues that neither of these views can provide a proper framework for ethics. Drawing on the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur and Charles Taylor, he presents a fascinating reworking of key issues in ethics and continental philosophy.

Biographie:
Nicholas H. Smith is a Lecturer in Philosophy at Macquarie University, Sydney.

Sommaire:
Introduction; Chapter 1 The variety of hermeneutics; Chapter 2 Strong hermeneutics and the contingency of self; Chapter 3 Interpretation, practical reason and tradition; Chapter 4 Deep hermeneutics, emancipation and fate; Chapter 5 Communication and the contingency of language; Chapter 6 Strong hermeneutics and discourse ethics; Chapter 7 The ecological politics of strong hermeneutics;