Although it might seem to elicit only a marginal interest for philosophical inquiry, in 20th century continental philosophy the experience of solitude and loneliness were shown to have unexpected importance and gravity. For philosophers such as M. Heidegger, H. Arendt, H.-G. Gadamer or P. Sloterdijk, solitude and loneliness are to be seen, on the one hand, as an ontological determination of our Being and, on the other, as a cause for some of the most worrisome problems of our times such, (...) as the birth of totalitarianism or the phenomenon of self-alienation wide-spread in the Western bureaucratic societies. But none of the philosophers dealing with these matters offers us a clear positive understanding of what solitude and loneliness actually are nor what the task of philosophy should be with regard to these experiences even though they give us to understand that philosophy has one. The present paper tarries upon this question, approaching it from the other end though an investigation of the status of alterity in Heidegger and Gadamer’s philosophy. (shrink)

Romanian pedagogical theory rests on the assumption that any educational content can be taught and learned faster and better by recourse to a battery of teaching methods. In the present study we question that assumption and show that the methods generally recommended have no didactic merits when it comes to teaching philosophy and the human sciences. In order to prove that we commence by rendering manifest the origins, the specificity and the presuppositions of the teaching methods described in the literature. (...) Afterwards we determine the specificity of the objects of study of philosophy and the human sciences in general. On these bases we develop a series of three arguments that show why, given the particularity of both, the recourse to methods for teaching philosophy and the human sciences is inadequate. (shrink)

This book retraces the development of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics in relation with Martin Heidegger’s early ontological hermeneutics as well as his later thought and subjects it to a critical examination from the point of view of Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction.

Beginning with the second decade of the last century, after a fierce critique of W. Dilthey and the Historical School’s epistemological approach, philosophical hermeneutics has assumed the position of “official” philosophy of history of our times. However, in our previous work we have shown that philosophical hermeneutics is not actually able to give a better answer to “What is history?” than that already offered by the Historical School. Now we would like to show that its answer to the other fundamental (...) question of the philosophy of history - “How is history to be known?” - is even more problematic, making historical science impossible. For if the being of history really is tradition as philosophical hermeneutics argues, and if the essence of tradition is language then, on the one hand, the very stability of historical meaning presupposed by any epistemological process will always be displaced by the play of what Derrida calls “différance,” the ceaseless differentiation of the signifiers and signifieds. And, on the other hand, even if historical meaning were stable enough so as to be known, it could not be grasped because, we will try to argue, the process of understanding as philosophical hermeneutics describes it is always permeated by misunderstanding. (shrink)

The present paper endeavors to trace the sketch of a possible epistemology of the human sciences. In this sense it begins with the determination of the object ofknowledge in the human sciences through a careful examination of the reality of history and of the human world. Then, considering the peculiarity of the domain of the human sciences the paper proceeds to show that their object of knowledge is best understood as “event” in the sense of Gilles Deleuze and Alain Badiou. (...) And, in the end, it circumscribes two modes of knowledge of this object of the human sciences understood as event. (shrink)

The present paper deals with the philosophical styles of the hermeneutic project and deconstruction and tries to answer the question whether there really is, as Derrida argues, a fundamental difference, even an opposition between them. In this sense, taking the questions Derrida addressed Gadamer in their famous Paris encounter in 1981 as a clue, the author retraces the fundamental articulations of deconstruction, descending from Derrida's own description of the idea to his actual deconstructive practice, and shows that the presupposition Derrida (...) takes as separating the hermeneutic project from deconstruction is actually one these two share in common. (shrink)

The aim of the present paper is to offer a critical examination of the episte- mological foundations of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT). Taking the tension between the basic presupposition between REBT and the ABC cognitive model constituting its core as its cue, the paper focuses on the causal relation between cognition and emotion and tries to argue that, at closer inspection, neither the theoretical, nor the experimental reasons ad- duced in favor of the idea of a determining role of (...) cognition in the appear- ance of mental disturbance actually hold. (shrink)

With the publication of Being and Time and Truth and Method philosophical hermeneutics seems to have become the official philosophy of history, with exclusive rights on the questions arising from the fact-of-having-a-past. From now on the epistemological approach of the German historical school, reaching a peak in Dilthey’s thought, is unanimously recognized as definitively overcome, aufheben, by the ontological interrogation of hermeneutics. But, with the same unanimity, it is also recognized that the reasons behind this overcoming and their validity are (...) not readily apparent. For, as it has been shown in the literature, Heidegger’s critique of Dilthey proves to be partial and lacunar, whereas Gadamer’s is straightforwardly ambiguous. Our paper assumes as its first task a re-evaluation of these critiques and of the hypotheses proposed in the literature with regard to what could be the problem with Dilthey’s epistemology. In this sense the paper argues that the problem resides in that the fundamental concepts on which it is based are bound to miss the peculiarity of history by idealizing it and masking the power relations inhabiting it. As a second task, our paper proposes an investigation of whether philosophical hermeneutics itself manages torise to the expectations through which Dilthey’s thought is evaluated. As it will become manifest, the answer to this question is in the negative. That is why, in the end, we will defend the necessity of a post-historicist and post-hermeneutic philosophy of history. (shrink)

This paper endeavours to point towards the direction of an answer to the problem whether or not philosophical hermeneutics is post-metaphysical. Starting from Derrida’s critique of hermeneutics, the author argues that this problem reduces itself to the question: “is hermeneutics a violent form of thought?” Through a reinterpretation of Gadamer’s concept of “living language of dialogue” starting from the point of view upon the history of the concept of language offered by Truth and Method and on the basis of the (...) similitude between language and art the answer to this latter question is given in the negative. (shrink)

Volumul de fata ofera o interpretare critica, problematizanta a descrierii fenomenului comprehensiunii oferita de filosoful german Hans-Georg Gadamer si, prin aceasta, o introducere in Adevar si metoda si in gandirea sa ca atare. In acest sens, el se deschide cu reluarea in maniera sintetica a descrierii gadameriene (Cap. 1) urmand indeaproape cei trei pasi mari pe Gadamer pe care ii face in aprofundarea fenomenului, iar apoi purcede la testarea presupozitiilor fundamentale a acestei descrieri (Cap. 2) si la tragerea tuturor concluziilor (...) care decurg din ea (Cap. 3). Astfel, volumul da curs unei discutii detaliate a reabilitarii gadameriene a conceptului de prejudecata si a traditiei si incearca sa ofere si o alta modalitate de atestare a rationalitatii acestora decat cea propusa de filosoful german aratand ca, in masura in care esenta traditiei este, asa cum arata Gadamer, limba, pastrarea (Bewharung) prin care ea devine efectiva in curgerea timpului poate fi si chiar trebuie inteleasa in termenii procesului reflexiv al schimbarii lingvistice asa cum este el circumscris de lingvistul roman Eugen Coseriu.Dar, chiar daca descrierea gadameriana a intelegerii poate fi intemeiata si pe aceasta noua cale, ea nu se dovedeste a fi pe deplin consistenta. Caci, prin insasi termenii in care este formulata, ea exclude posibilitatea neinselegerii desi, se argumenteaza, aceasta din urma joaca in fapt rolul unui transcendental hermeneutic. (shrink)

The present paper is aimed at the teachers (to be) of human sciences (especially economics) and offers an in-depth commentary and interpretation of Hans- Georg Gadamer’s view of the concept of question and the activity of questioning. The goal of the paper is to circumscribe the conditions of interrogation thus offering the teachers (to be) a means of enhancing the didactic efficiency of the learning sequences based on questioning.

Cultura română, încă de la începuturile ei, a fost puternic legată de gândirea lui Schopenhauer, aceasta fiind o temă constantă de studiu începând odată cu Junimea şi până la mijlocul anilor ’40. Cu toate acestea, de o bibliografie asupra subiectului nu ne-am bucurat decât odată cu a doua jumătate a anilor ’90 când a fost tradusă pentru prima oară Lumea ca voinţă şi reprezentare şi totodată când au fost traduse şi reeditate şi o serie de lucrări cu caracter critic sau (...) monografic. (shrink)

The present paper aims to bring to light the relevance of Wittgenstein‘s thought for philosophical hermeneutics. In this sense it offers a thorough discussion of the Austrian philosopher‘s understanding of the concept of translation through a detailed examination of its development from its first formulation in the context of the picture theory of meaning in the Tractatus to its reformulation as "language game" and "form of life" within the use theory put forth in Philosophical Investigations. The paper argues that the (...) skepticism towards the history of everyday language implied by Wittgenstein‘s understanding of translation could be taken as an important step forward in the development of a critical dimension of philosophical hermeneutics. (shrink)

The object of the present study is the relationship between the idea that „the sun rises” and the fundamental thesis of Copernicus’ view upon the universe. Arguing that this relationship is logically a contradiction, the present study endeavours to give the reasons why, from the point of view of Alfred Schutz’s inquiry into the life-world, it is not usually perceived as such.

Aziz Al-Azmeh, Muslim Kingship. Power and the Sacred in Muslim, Christian and Pagan Polities, Tauris, 2001.

This is a review of the Romanian translation of Jacques Derrida's Belief and Knowledge.

Codoban, Aurel. Imperiul comunicării: corp, imagine şi relaţionare (The Empire of Communication: Body, Image and Relation). Cluj-Napoca: Idea, 2011.