R&L Logo R&L Logo
  • GENERAL
    • Browse by Subjects
    • New Releases
    • Coming Soon
    • Chases's Calendar
  • ACADEMIC
    • Textbooks
    • Browse by Course
    • Instructor's Copies
    • Monographs & Research
    • Reference
  • PROFESSIONAL
    • Education
    • Intelligence & Security
    • Library Services
    • Business & Leadership
    • Museum Studies
    • Music
    • Pastoral Resources
    • Psychotherapy
  • FREUD SET
Cover Image
Hardback
share of facebook share on twitter
Add to GoodReads

Gadamer's Dialectical Hermeneutics

Lauren Swayne Barthold

Gadamer's Dialectical Hermeneutics contributes to the growing literature that takes seriously the significance of Plato for Gadamer's hermeneutics. What distinguishes this book is the way in which Lauren Swayne Barthold argues for a dialectic central to Gadamer's hermeneutics, one that recalls the Platonic chorismos, or separation, between the transcendent and sensory realms. Barthold demonstrates that Gadamer, too, insisted on the "in-between" nature of human understanding as characterized by Hermes: we are finite beings always striving for infinity—that which lies beyond being.

Such a dialectical reading brings clarity to several themes crucial to, and contested within, Gadamer's hermeneutics. First, we are helped to see that Gadamer affirms the roles of both theory and practice for hermeneutics. Second, we are able to appreciate the nature of truth as the event of understanding—that into which we enter as opposed to that which stands apart from us as a criterion. Third, we gain insight into the significance of dialogue for understanding, including the necessary role of the other. And finally, we are able to substantiate the meaning of the good–beyond–being, as a key component to understanding. Gadamer's Dialectical Hermeneutics presents a reading of Gadamer that avoids the labels of realism or essentialism, and shows his primary motivation is to uncover the ethical, indeed dialectically ethical, and practical nature of philosophy.
  • Details
  • Details
  • Author
  • Author
  • TOC
  • TOC
  • Reviews
  • Reviews
Lexington Books
Pages: 166 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
978-0-7391-3887-8 • Hardback • November 2009 • $120.00 • (£92.00)
Subjects: Philosophy / Criticism
Lauren Swayne Barthold is associate professor of philosophy at Gordon College.
Chapter 1: Gadamer's Dialectical Plato
Chapter 2: Gadamer's Dialectical Aristotle
Chapter 3: The Dialectic of Understanding: Theoria and Praxis
Chapter 4: Truth's Dialectic
Chapter 5: Hermeneutics' Dialectical Ethics: Dialogue and The Good
Barthold's close reading of Gadamer's major works enhances our understanding of philosophical hermeneutics in several significant ways. Readers who follow Barthold back to Gadamer's interpretations of the early Plato will come away with increased clarity about the particular kind of dialectic that persists and pervades Gadamer's hermeneutics. This focus on the dialectical nature of hermeneutics leads in turn to a deeper insight into the idea of the good that sustains Gadamer's hermeneutics. Thanks to Barthold, we come to understand that that which makes philosophical hermeneutics dialectical also makes it ethical.
— Kathleen Wright, Haverford College


Barthold's book is a wonderful exercise in neo-pragmatic practical philosophy and will provide those interested in it with many important insights. On top of this, and beyond Barthold's larger project, many of the early chapters of her book contain valuable insights into aspects of Gadamer's reading of Plato and Aristotle that have not been thoroughly investigated, especially the relation between dialectics and hermeneutics.
— Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, April 2010


A perceptive reinterpretation and a bold defense of Gadamer's hermeneutics. Beginning with Gadamer's appropriation of themes from Plato and Aristotle, Barthold offers a new reading of Gadamer's understanding of dialogue and dialectic, the subtle interplay of theoria and praxis, and the orientation to a good that is beyond being. She beautifully shows how Gadamer's hermeneutics is a dialectical ethics. She tackles some of the most difficult issues concerning the meaning of truth and vigorously answers Gadamer's critics. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the importance of hermeneutics and its contemporary relevance.
— Richard J. Bernstein, Professor of Philosophy, New School for Social Research


Gadamer's Dialectical Hermeneutics

Cover Image
Hardback
Summary
Summary
  • Gadamer's Dialectical Hermeneutics contributes to the growing literature that takes seriously the significance of Plato for Gadamer's hermeneutics. What distinguishes this book is the way in which Lauren Swayne Barthold argues for a dialectic central to Gadamer's hermeneutics, one that recalls the Platonic chorismos, or separation, between the transcendent and sensory realms. Barthold demonstrates that Gadamer, too, insisted on the "in-between" nature of human understanding as characterized by Hermes: we are finite beings always striving for infinity—that which lies beyond being.

    Such a dialectical reading brings clarity to several themes crucial to, and contested within, Gadamer's hermeneutics. First, we are helped to see that Gadamer affirms the roles of both theory and practice for hermeneutics. Second, we are able to appreciate the nature of truth as the event of understanding—that into which we enter as opposed to that which stands apart from us as a criterion. Third, we gain insight into the significance of dialogue for understanding, including the necessary role of the other. And finally, we are able to substantiate the meaning of the good–beyond–being, as a key component to understanding. Gadamer's Dialectical Hermeneutics presents a reading of Gadamer that avoids the labels of realism or essentialism, and shows his primary motivation is to uncover the ethical, indeed dialectically ethical, and practical nature of philosophy.
Details
Details
  • Lexington Books
    Pages: 166 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
    978-0-7391-3887-8 • Hardback • November 2009 • $120.00 • (£92.00)
    Subjects: Philosophy / Criticism
Author
Author
  • Lauren Swayne Barthold is associate professor of philosophy at Gordon College.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Chapter 1: Gadamer's Dialectical Plato
    Chapter 2: Gadamer's Dialectical Aristotle
    Chapter 3: The Dialectic of Understanding: Theoria and Praxis
    Chapter 4: Truth's Dialectic
    Chapter 5: Hermeneutics' Dialectical Ethics: Dialogue and The Good
Reviews
Reviews
  • Barthold's close reading of Gadamer's major works enhances our understanding of philosophical hermeneutics in several significant ways. Readers who follow Barthold back to Gadamer's interpretations of the early Plato will come away with increased clarity about the particular kind of dialectic that persists and pervades Gadamer's hermeneutics. This focus on the dialectical nature of hermeneutics leads in turn to a deeper insight into the idea of the good that sustains Gadamer's hermeneutics. Thanks to Barthold, we come to understand that that which makes philosophical hermeneutics dialectical also makes it ethical.
    — Kathleen Wright, Haverford College


    Barthold's book is a wonderful exercise in neo-pragmatic practical philosophy and will provide those interested in it with many important insights. On top of this, and beyond Barthold's larger project, many of the early chapters of her book contain valuable insights into aspects of Gadamer's reading of Plato and Aristotle that have not been thoroughly investigated, especially the relation between dialectics and hermeneutics.
    — Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, April 2010


    A perceptive reinterpretation and a bold defense of Gadamer's hermeneutics. Beginning with Gadamer's appropriation of themes from Plato and Aristotle, Barthold offers a new reading of Gadamer's understanding of dialogue and dialectic, the subtle interplay of theoria and praxis, and the orientation to a good that is beyond being. She beautifully shows how Gadamer's hermeneutics is a dialectical ethics. She tackles some of the most difficult issues concerning the meaning of truth and vigorously answers Gadamer's critics. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the importance of hermeneutics and its contemporary relevance.
    — Richard J. Bernstein, Professor of Philosophy, New School for Social Research


ALSO AVAILABLE

  • Cover image for the book Prometheanism: Technology, Digital Culture and Human Obsolescence
  • Cover image for the book Telling Stories: Postmodernism and the Invalidation of Traditional Narrative
  • Cover image for the book My Elders Taught Me: Aspects of Western Great Lakes American Indian Philosophy
  • Cover image for the book Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment: Critical Essays
  • Cover image for the book Anscombe's Moral Philosophy
  • Cover image for the book Critical Perspectives on African Genocide: Memory, Silence, and Anti-Black Political Violence
  • Cover image for the book The Center Must Not Hold: White Women Philosophers on the Whiteness of Philosophy
  • Cover image for the book The Problem of Naturalism: Analytic Perspectives, Continental Virtues
  • Cover image for the book Perspectives on the Philosophy of William P. Alston
  • Cover image for the book Removing the Commons: A Lockean Left-Libertarian Approach to the Just Use and Appropriation of Natural Resources
  • Cover image for the book Chronopathologies: Time and Politics in Deleuze, Derrida, Analytic Philosophy, and Phenomenology
  • Cover image for the book Metaphilosophy: Philosophy in Philosophical Perspective
  • Cover image for the book MIASMA: 'Haecceitas' in Scotus, the Esoteric in Plato, and 'Other Related Matters'
  • Cover image for the book Martin Lebowitz: His Thought and Writings
  • Cover image for the book The Pseudo-Science of B. F. Skinner
  • Cover image for the book New Interpretations of Berkeley's Thought
  • Cover image for the book Passion and Virtue in Descartes
  • Cover image for the book In-Between: An Essay on Categories, Current Continental Research
  • Cover image for the book A Philosophical Life: The Collected Essays of William C. Gentry
  • Cover image for the book The New Tractatus: Summing Up Everything
  • Cover image for the book Prometheanism: Technology, Digital Culture and Human Obsolescence
  • Cover image for the book Telling Stories: Postmodernism and the Invalidation of Traditional Narrative
  • Cover image for the book My Elders Taught Me: Aspects of Western Great Lakes American Indian Philosophy
  • Cover image for the book Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment: Critical Essays
  • Cover image for the book Anscombe's Moral Philosophy
  • Cover image for the book Critical Perspectives on African Genocide: Memory, Silence, and Anti-Black Political Violence
  • Cover image for the book The Center Must Not Hold: White Women Philosophers on the Whiteness of Philosophy
  • Cover image for the book The Problem of Naturalism: Analytic Perspectives, Continental Virtues
  • Cover image for the book Perspectives on the Philosophy of William P. Alston
  • Cover image for the book Removing the Commons: A Lockean Left-Libertarian Approach to the Just Use and Appropriation of Natural Resources
  • Cover image for the book Chronopathologies: Time and Politics in Deleuze, Derrida, Analytic Philosophy, and Phenomenology
  • Cover image for the book Metaphilosophy: Philosophy in Philosophical Perspective
  • Cover image for the book MIASMA: 'Haecceitas' in Scotus, the Esoteric in Plato, and 'Other Related Matters'
  • Cover image for the book Martin Lebowitz: His Thought and Writings
  • Cover image for the book The Pseudo-Science of B. F. Skinner
  • Cover image for the book New Interpretations of Berkeley's Thought
  • Cover image for the book Passion and Virtue in Descartes
  • Cover image for the book In-Between: An Essay on Categories, Current Continental Research
  • Cover image for the book A Philosophical Life: The Collected Essays of William C. Gentry
  • Cover image for the book The New Tractatus: Summing Up Everything
facebook icon twitter icon instagram icon linked in icon NEWSLETTERS
ABOUT US
  • Mission Statement
  • Employment
  • Privacy
  • Accessibility Statement
CONTACT
  • Company Directory
  • Publicity and Media Queries
  • Rights and Permissions
  • Textbook Resource Center
AUTHOR RESOURCES
  • Royalty Contact
  • Production Guidelines
  • Manuscript Submissions
ORDERING INFORMATION
  • Rowman & Littlefield
  • National Book Network
  • Ingram Publisher Services UK
  • Special Sales
  • International Sales
  • eBook Partners
  • Digital Catalogs
IMPRINTS
  • Rowman & Littlefield
  • Lexington Books
  • Hamilton Books
  • Applause Books
  • Amadeus Press
  • Backbeat Books
  • Bernan
  • Hal Leonard Books
  • Limelight Editions
  • Co-Publishing Partners
  • Globe Pequot
  • Down East Books
  • Falcon Guides
  • Gooseberry Patch
  • Lyons Press
  • Muddy Boots
  • Pineapple Press
  • TwoDot Books
  • Stackpole Books
PARTNERS
  • American Alliance of Museums
  • American Association for State and Local History
  • Brookings Institution Press
  • Center for Strategic & International Studies
  • Council on Foreign Relations
  • Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
  • Fortress Press
  • The Foundation for Critical Thinking
  • Lehigh University Press
  • United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  • Other Partners...