EMBODIED UNDERSTANDING: ON A PATH NOT TRAVELLED IN GADAMER'S HERMENEUTICS

Kieran Owens

Abstract


This article challenges and builds upon the language-centred model of understanding found in Gadamer‟s hermeneutics. The alternative that is developed employs a concept of embodied understanding, derived from the work of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, which is better able to comprehend that which lies on the borders of language such as animality, infant development and aesthetic experience.

References


Gadamer, H 1977, Philosophical Hermeneutics, trans. D. Linge, University of California Press, Berkeley.

Gadamer, H 2004, Truth and Method, trans. J. Weinsheimer & D. Marshall, Continuum, New York.

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Lyotard, J 1988, The Differend: Phrases in Dispute, trans. G. Abbeele, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.

Merleau-Ponty, M 1964, „Eye and mind‟, trans. C Dallery, in The Primacy of Perception, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, pp159-190.

Merleau-Ponty, M 1968, The Visible and the Invisible, trans. A. Lingis, Northwestern University Press, Evanston.

Merleau-Ponty, M 1973, The Prose of the World, trans. J O'Neill, Northwestern University Press, Evanston.

Merleau-Ponty, M 2002, Phenomenology of Perception, trans. C. Smith, Routledge Classics, New York.

Merleau-Ponty, M 2003, Nature: Course Notes from the Collège de France, trans. R. Vallier, Northwestern University Press, Evanston.


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