Questions tagged [hermeneutics]
17 questions
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What would it take in a book to convince a rational person that it had been written by or directly inspired by a god?
Many of the world's religions are based on a book or text that adherents claim to have been written by or directly inspired by a god, perhaps omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent.
My question is whether there is anything, in principle, that…
JDH
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Are all philosophers subject to a variation of the Socrates problem?
Obviously, the specific problem of knowing who Socrates was and what he taught is wholly unique to the man. However, reading books and articles about philosophers and philosophy, I'm struck by the occasions when later commentators disagree about…
Jon 'links in bio' Ericson
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How to implement the so called 'principle of charity'?
The 'principle of charity' has been considered of great importance especially in scholarly communication. It is not very clear, nonetheless, how the principle can be implemented, even in simple context of studying philosophy and writing philosophy:…
L.M. Student
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Can any Nietzsche experts offer recommendations for research on the origin/meaning of suffering in Nietzsche?
I'm gearing up to explore Nietzsche for the first time in a junior undergraduate 19th Century Euro Thought class, and I'm interested in exploring a specific question regarding the meaning and origin of suffering. Actually, I'm only interested in the…
Eddie Peters
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What does Marcus Aurelius mean by quoting Plato here?
Keep always before you that “this is no different from an empty field,” and the things in it are the same as on a mountaintop, on the seashore, wherever. Plato gets to the heart of it: “fencing a sheepfold in the mountains, and milking goats or…
Li Cooper
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What's the difference between the "hermeneutics of suspicion" and conspiracy theory?
The term "conspiracy theory" was invented by Karl Popper as a way to describe Marxist theories of history as a collusion of the bourgeoise class against the working class. So, as far as I can tell, someone actually arguing after Popper would say…
Avery
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Is it honest to accept only part of a story as being metaphorical?
I will take the example of Christianity, but my question applies to any other religious material
The majority of christians seems to accept that parts of the Bible are metaphors that should not be read literally (e.g. the genesis for some…
Fatalize
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How to effectively undertake the study of a philosophical work?
I feel like this question gets posed a lot in different ways and was curious if it might be possible to formulate it narrowly enough to get answered here.
For the most part I think the answer is determined by the question -- in other words, you find…
Joseph Weissman
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Is the idea of the word of God a means to understand human nature, and prayer?
The idea may sound stupidly ridiculous, but I wonder, can the word of God (Christ?) be read as an allegory on how it is that prayer works. If you see John 1:1-3 it says:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was…
user28117
2
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1 answer
What does 'hermeneutic analysis' mean for non-literary material?
I am reading Exploring Robotic Minds by Prof. Jun Tani in which he describes Heidegger as having performed a hermeneutic analysis of the problem of the subjective vs the objective.
Heidegger just could not accept the unconditional prior existence…
Toke Faurby
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How should one interpret Camus' quote about the "vanity of experience"?
I am writing an essay that requires a section on "experience," and I was looking for a quote to use in my introduction.
I found this quote by Camus on BrainyQuote:
You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.
After doing some research, I…
vpn
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Does technology erode the subject or inflate the subject, and , are there good refutations of David Skrbinas philosophy of technology?
My question largely revolves around the work of one Chad Haag, he is a philosophy undergrad with a masters in comparative literature, he fled to India to avoid paying student loans and is a pretty prolific author, putting out about 2 books a year.…
JarrynV
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Theories of meta-interpretation?
Is there any discussion in perhaps hermeneutical theory about meta-interpretation, which is when you try to interpret or understand something, by thinking about blindspots you have from your own perspective, which cause you to understand someone…
hmltn
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Ontic/Ontological as parallel to a posteriori/a priori?
Heidegger makes the distinction between the ontic (concerning beings themselves) and the ontological (the being of beings, being as such).
Would it be wise to say that the ontic covers the contingent possibilities concerning beings and the…
Oliver H
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Are there any fancy terms for the "supposed meaning" of the text and the "actual meaning" of the text?
I am currently writing a software requirements document. It is supposed to be modified and updated by the software developers. I would like to categorize the possible changes. To do this, I introduce several entities:
The text of the standard, i.e.…
Mikhail
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