Abstract

How can we achieve the best understanding of the religious and moral lives of others? This is a question that has been of particular interest in recent years. As societies become more multicultural and we continue to move toward a global community, finding good answers to this question is imperative. ;This dissertation addresses this question by appropriating the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer for the task of comparative religion and/or ethics. In particular, Gadamer's appropriation of the Aristotelian concept of phronesis is used as a way to construct a meta-methodological position from which to do comparative religion and/or ethics. The value of the concept of phronesis is that it provides a way of describing both the religio-moral lives of others as well as the process of understanding itself. It is both descriptive and reflexive. In regard to the descriptive dimension, the use of phronesis is shown to be a more adequate tool of moral theory than those found in contemporary approaches to comparative religious ethics. In regard to the reflexive dimension, philosophical hermeneutics extends the concept of phronesis in order to develop a dialogical and moral point of view from which to approach the other. It is a position that is grounded in an understanding of understanding as such and the way in which all understanding is achieved through language. ;From this fundamental grounding in Gadamer's theory of understanding as such and language, a constructive moral project is developed for comparative religious ethics. But it is a project that reaches beyond this narrow discipline and addresses the most central issues facing us today. It addresses the question of how we can approach the other morally in order to understand the other adequately, and how this can lead to the goal of solidarity with the other.