Transcendentalist Hermeneutics

Transcendentalist Hermeneutics PDF Author: Richard A. Grusin
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822310594
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
American literary historians have viewed Ralph Waldo Emerson’s resignation from the Unitarian ministry in 1832 in favor of a literary career as emblematic of a main current in American literature. That current is directed toward the possession of a self that is independent and fundamentally opposed to the “accoutrements of society and civilization” and expresses a Transcendentalist antipathy toward all institutionalized forms of religious observance. In the ongoing revision of American literary history, this traditional reading of the supposed anti-institutionalism of the Transcendentalists has been duly detailed and continually supported. Richard A. Grusin challenges both traditional and revisionist interpretations with detailed contextual studies of the hermeneutics of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Theodore Parker. Informed by the past two decades of critical theory, Grusin examines the influence of the higher criticism of the Bible—which focuses on authorship, date, place of origin, circumstances of composition, and the historical credibility of biblical writings—on these writers. The author argues that the Transcendentalist appeal to the authority of the “self” is not an appeal to a source of authority independent of institutions, but to an authority fundamentally innate.

Transcendentalist Hermeneutics

Transcendentalist Hermeneutics PDF Author: Richard A. Grusin
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822310594
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
American literary historians have viewed Ralph Waldo Emerson’s resignation from the Unitarian ministry in 1832 in favor of a literary career as emblematic of a main current in American literature. That current is directed toward the possession of a self that is independent and fundamentally opposed to the “accoutrements of society and civilization” and expresses a Transcendentalist antipathy toward all institutionalized forms of religious observance. In the ongoing revision of American literary history, this traditional reading of the supposed anti-institutionalism of the Transcendentalists has been duly detailed and continually supported. Richard A. Grusin challenges both traditional and revisionist interpretations with detailed contextual studies of the hermeneutics of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Theodore Parker. Informed by the past two decades of critical theory, Grusin examines the influence of the higher criticism of the Bible—which focuses on authorship, date, place of origin, circumstances of composition, and the historical credibility of biblical writings—on these writers. The author argues that the Transcendentalist appeal to the authority of the “self” is not an appeal to a source of authority independent of institutions, but to an authority fundamentally innate.

Between Faith and Unbelief: American Transcendentalists and the Challenge of Atheism

Between Faith and Unbelief: American Transcendentalists and the Challenge of Atheism PDF Author: Elisabeth Hurth
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047421264
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
This book sets out to shed light on what is specific to American Transcendentalism by comparing it with the atheistic vision of German philosophers and theologians like Ludwig Feuerbach and Arthur Schopenhauer. The study argues that atheism was part of the discursive and religious context from which Transcendentalism emerged. Tendencies toward atheism were already inherent in Transcendentalist thought. The atheist scenario came to the surface in the controversy about Emerson’s “new views.” Contemporary critics charged that the deity Emerson worshipped was himself. Emersonian Transcendentalism thus anticipated some of the central concerns in the works of German atheists like Feuerbach. From idealism to atheism seemed but a short step.

The Oxford Handbook of Transcendentalism

The Oxford Handbook of Transcendentalism PDF Author: Joel Myerson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199887071
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 953

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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of Transcendentalism offers an ecclectic, comprehensive interdisciplinary approach to the immense cultural impact of the movement that encompassed literature, art, architecture, science, and politics.

Essays on Explanation and Understanding

Essays on Explanation and Understanding PDF Author: Juha Manninen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401018235
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description


Subjectivity and Lifeworld in Transcendental Phenomenology

Subjectivity and Lifeworld in Transcendental Phenomenology PDF Author: Sebastian Luft
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0810127431
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
The purpose of the text is threefold: 1] to contribute to the renaissance of Husserl interpretation around a) the continuing publication of Husserl's manuscripts and b) his unpublished manuscripts; 2] to account for the historical origins and influence of the phenomenological project by articulating Husserl's relationship to authors before and after him; 3] to argue for the viability of the phenomenological project as conceived by Husserl in his later years. In regard to the last purpose, Luft's main argument shows that Husserlian phenomenology is not exhausted in the Cartesian (early) perspective, which is indeed its weakest and most vulnerable perspective. Husserlian phenomenology is a robust and philosophically necessary perspective when taken from its hermeneutic (late) perspective. And the ultimate point Luft makes in the text is that Husserl's hermeneutic phenomenology is distinct from other hermeneutic philosophers, namely, Cassirer, Heidegger and Gadamer. Unlike them, Husserl's focus centers on the work the subject must do in order to uncover the prejudices that guide his/her unreflective relationship to the world. In making his argument, Luft also demonstrates that there is a deep consistency within Husserl's own writings-from early to late-around the guiding themes of: 1] the natural attitude; 2] the need and function of the epoché; and 3] the split between egos, where the transcendental self (distinct from the natural self) is seen as the fundamental ability we all have to inquire into the genesis of our tradition-laden attitudes toward the world.

Radical Hermeneutics

Radical Hermeneutics PDF Author: John D. Caputo
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253114349
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
Radical Hermeneutics forges a closer collaboration between hermeneutics and deconstruction than has previously been attempted. For John D. Caputo, hermeneutics means radical thinking without transcendental justification: attending to the ruptures and irregularities in existence before the metaphysics of presence has a chance to smooth them over. Part One shows how Kierkegaardian repetition and Husserlian constitution are fused in Heidegger's classic of hermeneutic statement, Being and Time. Part Two takes up the radicalization of Husserl's and Heidegger's questioning carried out by Derrida. Here, Caputo urges a more radical reading of Heidegger as well as a more hermeneutic reading of Derrida. Part Three argues that radical thinking is not an exercise in nihilism, as its critics charge, but a renewed vigilance about the gaps and differences inherent in our experience. Caputo projects the possibility of a postmetaphysical conception of rationality, an ethics of dissemination, and a notion of faith liberated from the onto-theo-logic. Radical Hermeneutics addresses the most trenchant issues in recent Continental thought.

Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism PDF Author: Joel Myerson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198028490
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 751

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Book Description
The transcendentalist movement is generally recognized to be the first major watershed in American literary and intellectual history. Pioneered by Emerson, Thoreau, Orestes Brownson, Margaret Fuller, and Bronson Alcott (among others), Transcendentalism provided a springboard for the first distinctly American forays into intellectual culture: religion and religious reform, philosophy, literature, ecology, and spiritualism. This new collection, edited by eminent American literature scholar Joel Myerson, is the first anthology of the period to appear in over fifty years. Transcendentalism: A Reader draws together in their entirety the essential writings of the Transcendentalist group during its most active period, 1836-1844. It includes the major publications of the Dial, the writings on democratic and social reform, the early poetry, nature writings, and all of Emerson's major essays, as well as an informative introduction and annotations by Myerson.

From a Transcendental-semiotic Point of View

From a Transcendental-semiotic Point of View PDF Author: Karl-Otto Apel
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719055386
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Collected together in English, Karl-Otto Apel's work covers a spectrum of philosophical issues. This work is aimed at academics and students concerned with (post-)analytical philosophy, epistemology, history of science, Heidegger's fundamental ontology, current debates about transcendental modes of argument, second-generation Frankfurt School thinkers and American pragmatists. It is also aimed at those interested in reformulations of Kantian themes and redefinitions of older ideas within the linguistic paradigm, as well as those who, being familiar with Habermas' work, wish to know more about the controversies and debates within the circle of the Frankfurt School itself.

Gadamer’s Hermeneutics

Gadamer’s Hermeneutics PDF Author: Robert J. Dostal
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0810144522
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 453

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Book Description
In Gadamer’s Hermeneutics Robert J. Dostal provides a comprehensive and critical account of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutical philosophy, arguing that Gadamer’s enterprise is rooted in the thesis that “being that can be understood is language.” He defends Gadamer against charges of linguistic idealism and emphasizes language’s relationship to understanding, though he criticizes Gadamer for too often ignoring the role of the prelinguistic in our experience. Dostal goes on to explain the concept of the "inner word" for Gadamer’s account of language. The book situates Gadamer’s hermeneutics in three important ways: in relation to the contestability of the legacy of the Enlightenment project; in relation to the work of his mentor, Martin Heidegger; and in relation to Gadamer’s reading of Plato and Aristotle. Dostal explores both Gadamer’s claim on the Enlightenment and his ambivalence toward it. He considers Gadamer’s dependence on Heidegger’s accomplishment while pointing out the ways in which Gadamer charted his own course, rejecting his teacher’s reading of Plato and his antihumanism. Dostal points out notable differences in the philosophers’ politics as well. Finally, Dostal mediates between Gadamer’s hermeneutics and what might be called philological hermeneutics. His analysis defends the civic humanism that is the culmination of the philosopher’s hermeneutics, a humanism defined by moral education, common sense, judgment, and taste. Supporters and critics of Gadamer’s philosophy will learn much from this major achievement.

Handbook of American Romanticism

Handbook of American Romanticism PDF Author: Philipp Löffler
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110592231
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 610

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Book Description
The Handbook of American Romanticism presents a comprehensive survey of the various schools, authors, and works that constituted antebellum literature in the United States. The volume is designed to feature a selection of representative case studies and to assess them within two complementary frameworks: the most relevant historical, political, and institutional contexts of the antebellum decades and the consequent (re-)appropriations of the Romantic period by academic literary criticism in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.