Hermeneutics-Phenomenology

Hermeneutics and phenomenology are the two main philosophical theories of contemporary continental philosophy. This course presents the origins of these two theories at the end of 19th century and their historical relation to prior ones, especially Kant's critical philosophy,century epistemology and metaphysics of 19th century German idealism. It focuses as its main topic on the transformation of traditional hermeneutics from a pure methodological tool of humanities to a wider critical theory of historical reason in Dilthey.Secondarily it offers an introduction to E. Husserl's phenomenological analysis of consciousness.

Objectives

In this course the students acquire a) Historical knowledge concerning both the emergence of these two philosophical tendencies out of the philosophical shifts happened at the end of the 19th century and their impact on the development of contemporary philosophy b) Systematic philosophical knowledge of the main features of these theories (questions – concepts – principles). Central issues: i) the historical nature of consciousness and language – creativity and individuality of mind –understanding of other persons – structural features of interpretation, ii) structures of consciousness – egocentric thought - intentionality - the reality of external objects

Prerequisites

Acquaintance with the matter of metaphysical thinking – basic questioning and basic concepts in ontology and epistemology

Syllabus

The historical overview concerns the following topics: - determination of contemporary philosophy in general as opposed to both classical and post-kantian metaphysical thinking - correlations and discrepancies between hermeneutics and phenomenology on the one side and I. Kant’ s critical method and kantian epistemology of pure reason on the other - antecessors, main representatives, major works - convergence of these two trends during the progress of contemporary philosophy The systematic presentation concerns to the following topics: a) Hermeneutics - philosophical founding of the hermeneutic process - profound analysis of understanding - creativity and historical nautre of language in Fr. Schleiermacher and the romantics. - expansion of the principle of understanding over any kind of minifestations of (self)conscious existence – progression beyond Kant - the project of the critique of historical reason in W. Dilthey. - the concept of effective history in Hans-Georg Gadamer. β) Phenomenology - introductory: the concept of the phenomenon in Fr. Brentano’s philosophical psychology. - phenomenology as systematic analysis of consciousness - the problem of egocentric thought - “epoche” and “phenomenological reduction” - analysis of our refering to the world – the intentionality of consciousness