Hermeneutics

Do We Need Real-Time Hermeneutics? Structures of Meaning in Games

by Jonne Arjoranta

Think Design Play: The fifth international conference of the Digital Research Association (DIGRA). Hilversum, the Netherlands: DiGRA/Utrecht School of the Arts, September, 2011.

Games differ from most other forms of media by being procedural and interactive. These qualities change how games... more Games differ from most other forms of media by being procedural and interactive. These qualities change how games create and transmit meaning to their players. The concept of “real-time hermeneutics” (Aarseth 2003) is analysed in order to understand how temporality affects the understanding of games. Temporal frames (Zagal and Mateas 2010) are introduced as an alternative way of understanding time in games.

The “Christian” Assumptions of Secular Hermeneutics

by Karl Hand

Crucible 4:1 (April 2012)

The relationship between Christian theology and secular hermeneutics is complex, and it is questionable whether many... more The relationship between Christian theology and secular hermeneutics is complex, and it is questionable whether many of the discourses that draw on hermeneutic theory are consistent with the presuppositions hidden beneath the surface. This article demystifies the highly theologised debate between monism and pluralism within the discipline of hermeneutics, and criticises the way that this theology has been done. From a Christian perspective that is free from cumbersome theological categories, a simple, authentic interpersonal ethic is the most appropriate way to approach texts. The implications for scholarly praxis are explored with specific reference to John C. Mellon’s ‘recovery hermeneutic’ reading of Mark’s gospel.

Dil, Anlamlandırma ve Yorumlama Üzerine Bir Deneme

by Ilyas Altuner

Beytulhikme An International Journal of Philosophy, 2(1), 2012

Bizim bu yazıda bahsetmeye çalıştığımız konu, daha çok metaontolojik ya da metafizik alan üzerinde yoğunlaşacaktır.... more Bizim bu yazıda bahsetmeye çalıştığımız konu, daha çok metaontolojik ya da metafizik alan üzerinde yoğunlaşacaktır. Nesnelerin kendinde varlığını bilemesek bile, en azından, dile gelmeyen bir şeylerden bahsediyoruz. Öyleyse bilemediğimiz alana ait yargılarımızın, bildiğimiz olgular alanıyla ilişkisi dolayısıyla az çok yorumlanabileceğini göz ardı etmememiz gerekir. Kendinde dünyanın yani numenin anlamını somut dünya tasarımıyla elde etmeye çabalamanın boşuna olacağı kesindir. Ancak bu durum, numen dünyasının araştırılmaması ve kendinde varlık alanının ne olduğu konusunda düşünmeye son verilmesi gerektiği manasını taşımaz. Çünkü somut dünya tasarımımızda sürekli değişen ve her değiştiğinde de anlamını değiştiren bir durum söz konusudur.

Practice What You Preach by Corinna Guerrero

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

The underlying principle that links a feminist critique to every other critical lens since the rise of feminist... more The underlying principle that links a feminist critique to every other critical lens since the rise of feminist discourse is the “hermeneutic of suspicion.” Essentially,  a hermeneutic of suspicion identifies the disconnect between rhetoric and a lived reality. The lived lives of women are different than the pontifications espoused directly and indirectly by the traditionally patriarchal social, political, cultural, religious, and educational structures in which individuals participate.

I like to think that I live my life bucking these structures whenever possible because the roles a woman plays in her own life should: 1) be determined by her; and 2) if she negotiates more “traditional practices” (e.g. marriage, motherhood, etc.) then these practices do not limit her to traditionalist practices (e.g. staying at home, spousal servitude, etc.). Granted, I used the two most generic examples of traditional and traditionalist practices, but the point is still valid. When I go to holidays with my extended family there are very few questions or comments about my PhD program, but many comments about the fact that I do not make a plate of food  for my husband. 

My hermeneutic of suspicion was triggered at a Bible Study last week. I will refrain from listing the denominational affiliation of the Christian church, the ethno-racial configuration of the participants, and the economic background of the community. In this way, the Bible Study does not represent our denominational, ethno-racial, or classist prejudices (and we all have them). It represents a common scenario faced by women and men every day who are hopeful and eager for better religious education

"La transformación contemporánea de la hermenéutica y el estatuto epistemológico de la historia"

by Francisco Vazquez Garcia

Análisis de la transformación que afectó a la hermenéutica contemporánea (Gadamer, Ricoeur) y de las nuevas... more Análisis de la transformación que afectó a la hermenéutica contemporánea (Gadamer, Ricoeur) y de las nuevas posibilidades que este cambio abre a la hora de articular entre sí reflexión hermenéutica, filosofía analítica y práctica de los historiadores

"La transformación contemporánea de la hermenéutica y el estatuto epistemológico de la historia"

by Francisco Vazquez Garcia

Análisis de la transformación que afectó a la hermenéutica contemporánea (Gadamer, Ricoeur) y de las nuevas... more Análisis de la transformación que afectó a la hermenéutica contemporánea (Gadamer, Ricoeur) y de las nuevas posibilidades que este cambio abre a la hora de articular entre sí reflexión hermenéutica, filosofía analítica y práctica de los historiadores

Playing Attention: The Hermeneutic Problems of Reading Ico Closely

by Peter McDonald

Published in Loading... (2012)

This article argues that paying attention to the specifics of a videogame involves a difficult problem of interpreting... more This article argues that paying attention to the specifics of a videogame involves a difficult problem of interpreting the meaning of repeated acts. A hermeneutic framework is developed by examining the PlayStation 2 game Ico through Melanie Klein’s object-relations psychoanalysis. The author argues that the controller functions as a semi-autonomous unconscious space that mediates unconscious phantasy and emotions, and therefore represents a privileged space for analysis. The article demonstrates the difference between a traditional close reading and a ludic close-reading by applying the tools to Ico in order to show how the game develops from a paranoid to a depressive style of play.

Call for Papers "Methods in Practice" Workshop, Manchester Workshop in Political Theory, 5-7 September 2012

by Jens Olesen

Cézanne's Vision: Confront the Sciences With the Nature From Which They Came

by Hans H. Diebner

Studia UBB. Philosophia LVII, 33-57 (1/2012)

Complex Texts: Analyzing, understanding, explaining and interpreting meanings

by Ruth Wodak

Comment to a paper by Adam Bell on Hermeneutics

Complex Texts: Analyzing, understanding, explaining and interpreting meanings

by Ruth Wodak

Comment to a paper by Adam Bell on Hermeneutics

Science and Transcendence: Westphal, Derrida, and Responsibility

by Nathan Kowalsky

published in 'Zygon:  Journal of Religion and Science', March 2012.

A full copy of the paper is available from the author upon request.

On the naive reading, “radical social constructivism” would be the result of “deconstructing” science. Science would... more On the naive reading, “radical social constructivism” would be the result of “deconstructing” science. Science would simply be a contingent construction in accordance with social determinants. However, postmodernism does not necessarily abandon fidelity to the objects of thought. Merold Westphal's Derridean philosophy of religion emphasizes that even theology need not eliminate the transcendence of the divine other. By drawing an analogy between natural and supernatural transcendence, I argue that science is similarly called to responsibility in the encounter with that which lies outside its horizon of expectation. Science's rational autonomy is overcome by the heteronomy of realities that precede it. Understanding species as homeostatic property clusters is an example of nonessentialist, postmodern, and scientific realism. Science is still a vehicle for encountering natural alterity, thus decentering the relativism thought to characterize postmodernism. However, natural science must not attempt to place the whole of being at human disposal if it is to fulfill the potential of Westphal's philosophy of religion.

Information violence and the myth of interactivity: why new media do not mean democracy.

by Jan Motal

In Božena Baluchová - Jana Matúšová - Beata Slobodová. Budúcnosť médií. Piešťany: MEDIATIKA, 2012. od s. 223-241, 18 s. ISBN 978-80-971009-0-2. (In czech)

This theoretical study examines the myth of cyberculture being democratic. Author adapts the Philippe Breton's concept... more This theoretical study examines the myth of cyberculture being democratic. Author adapts the Philippe Breton's concept of democracy as a symmetric speech act, and seeks for this symmetry within the internet, taking notice of the men's situation in particular, democratic divide and interactivity. The man as a central category of democracy stands opposed to technodeterminism and tries to revaluate the question of man's meaning as opposed to the utopian transhumanism. Besides the discourse of utopian, dystopian and social sciences, men's situation in the information society is viewed on the basis of his hermeneutics.

Historia sincera: ermeneutica dell'immaginazione in Spinoza e Vico

by Andrea Sangiacomo

Bollettino del Centro di Studi Vichiani 41 (1), 2011, pp. 43-73.

«HISTORIA SINCERA»: HERMENEUTICS OF IMAGINATION ACCORDING TO SPINOZA AND VICO. According to Derrida’s Of Grammatology... more «HISTORIA SINCERA»: HERMENEUTICS OF IMAGINATION ACCORDING TO SPINOZA AND VICO. According to Derrida’s Of Grammatology the Western ‘logocentrism’ represents the endeavor to conceives of language as disembodied and abstract. Be that as it may, as far as I am concerned, this interpretation turns out to be misleading. I will firstly sketch the main features of the analysis of this topic provided by Baruch Spinoza: his attempt to separate reason and imagination notwithstanding, his philosophy as a whole will be shown to tend to a considerable overlap rather than a total separation. Secondly, I will scrutinize the concept of ‘poetic logic’ developed by Gian Battista Vico, and I will contend that this logic might provide a convincing explanation for the ultimate a-rationality of the language. In conclusion, I will show how the debate considered might lay the foundations of a new hermeneutics that might be able to overcome the traditional dualism between logocentrism and relativism.

Aesthetic Experience Through Narrativity

by Donovan Irven

The Ontological I

by Donovan Irven

An/archy and the Dao, Levinas and the Great Teacher

by Donovan Irven

Augustine’s First Exegesis and the Divisions of Spiritual Life

by Naoki Kamimura

Originally presented at Western Pacific Rim Patristic Society: Inaugural Conference, University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo, September 24-26, 2004.
Published in Augustinian Studies 36 (2005) 421-432.

Introduction
The Audience of the De Genesi contra Manichaeos
The Divisions of Spiritual Life
The... more Introduction
The Audience of the De Genesi contra Manichaeos
The Divisions of Spiritual Life
The Imagery of the Reader of the Scripture
Conclusion

Augustine’s Scriptural Exegesis in De Genesi ad litteram imperfectus liber

by Naoki Kamimura

Studia Patristica 49 (Leuven: Peeters, 2010) 229-234

Introduction
1. Augustine’s commitment to a literal interpretation
2. Exegetical method in De Genesi ad... more Introduction
1. Augustine’s commitment to a literal interpretation
2. Exegetical method in De Genesi ad litteram imperfectus liber
3. Conclusion

El "sentido literal" de la Sagrada Escritura según la encíclica Divino Afflante Spiritu de Pío XII: algunas consecuencias para la exégesis bíblica

by Juan Carlos Ossandón

Published in "Razón y Tradición: estudios en honor de Juan Antonio Widow: volumen 1", Globo Editores, Santiago, 2011, 191-212