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The Hermeneutic Nature of Analytic Philosophy

A Study of Ernst Tugendhat

Santiago Zabala author Michael Haskell translator

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Columbia University Press

Published:30th May '08

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Gianni Vattimo and Santiago Zabala recast Karl Marx's theories at a time when capitalism's metaphysical moorings are buckling. Leaving aside the ideal of development and the general call for revolution, hermeneutic communism relies on interpretation rather than truth and proves more flexible in different contexts. It motivates a resistance to capitalism's inequalities yet intervenes against violence and authoritarianism by emphasizing the interpretative nature of truth. Paralleling Vattimo and Zabala's work on the weakening of religion, Hermeneutic Communism realizes the effective potential of Marxist thought.

Philosophers, analytic as well as continental, tend to feel uneasy about Ernst Tugendhat, who, though he positions himself in the analytic field, poses questions in the Heideggerian style. This book aims to present Tugendhat as an example of merged horizons, and to prove that any such labels impoverish philosophical research.Contemporary philosopher-analytic as well as continental--tend to feel uneasy about Ernst Tugendhat, who, though he positions himself in the analytic field, poses questions in the Heideggerian style. Tugendhat was one of Martin Heidegger's last pupils and his least obedient, pursuing a new and controversial critical technique. Tugendhat took Heidegger's destruction of Being as presence and developed it in analytic philosophy, more specifically in semantics. Only formal semantics, according to Tugendhat, could answer the questions left open by Heidegger. Yet in doing this, Tugendhat discovered the latent "hermeneutic nature of analytic philosophy"--its post-metaphysical dimension-in which "there are no facts, but only true propositions." What Tugendhat seeks to answer is this: What is the meaning of thought following the linguistic turn? Because of the rift between analytic and continental philosophers, very few studies have been written on Tugendhat, and he has been omitted altogether from several histories of philosophy. Now that these two schools have begun to reconcile, Tugendhat has become an example of a philosopher who, in the words of Richard Rorty, "built bridges between continents and between centuries." Tugendhat is known more for his philosophical turn than for his phenomenological studies or for his position within analytic philosophy, and this creates some confusion regarding his philosophical propensities. Is Tugendhat analytic or continental? Is he a follower of Wittgenstein or Heidegger? Does he belong in the culture of analysis or in that of tradition? Santiago Zabala presents Tugendhat as an example of merged horizons, promoting a philosophical historiography that is concerned more with dialogue and less with classification. In doing so, he places us squarely within a dialogic culture of the future and proves that any such labels impoverish philosophical research.

Zabala's wonderful epilogue--alone worth the price of the book. -- Bruce Krajewski Common Knowledge Manifestos are the tools through which we fashion new moral identities. They conjure and interpellate a more expansive "we." Hermeneutic Communism teaches us that we not only have to interpret the inheritance of communism in ever more generative and creativeways, but also fashion a more ecumenical and humane "we," through the new stories we tell about how we got where we are today and where we should be going in the near future. -- Eduardo Mendieta Los Angeles Review of Books

ISBN: 9780231143882

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

264 pages