Online a new article for the Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology by Carolyn Culbertson (Florida Gulf Coast University).
Carolyn Culbertson – “Shared Understanding Before Semantic Agreement: Gadamer on the Hidden Ground of Linguistic Community”
JBSP (Received 15 Oct 2024, Accepted 07 Dec 2024, Published online: 16 Dec 2024).
Abstract: Hans-Georg Gadamer argues that language is the medium of all understanding and thus that it is the medium through which we can reach understanding with one another. Yet many today are sceptical of this claim and worry that Gadamerian hermeneutics ignores at its own peril the limits of the particular discourses that people utilize to reach understanding with one another. I argue here that this criticism rests on the assumption that, for Gadamer, it is the semantic features of a language alone that allow it to function as the medium for shared understanding. I argue that focusing solely on semantic agreement as the source of understanding ignores the role that mutual recognition plays in allowing language to serve as a medium for shared understanding. I turn to discussions in several of Gadamer’s later essays to examine how he conceives of the mutual recognition that is essential for communicative understanding.
Full article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00071773.2024.2442115
Carolyn Culbertson, Philosophy, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Meyers, FL, USAAccessing JBSP Online: The Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology is accessed via our publisher’s website: JBSP at Taylor & Francis Online. Access to the JBSP is free to all members of the society. You can find out more about becoming a member and supporting the BSP on the membership webpage. If you are not a member of the BSP, you can also log in using institutional access via Shibboleth and OpenAthens.