Gonçalo Marcelo
University of Coimbra
Hermeneutics as Critical Social Theory
29 October 2024, 17h00 (Lisbon Time — GMT+0)
Sala Mattos Romão (Room C201.J – Department of Philosophy)
School of Arts and Humanities – University of Lisbon
Abstract
In this talk I will briefly present the fertile intersection between the tradition of philosophical hermeneutics and the task of critical social theory, exploring the possibility of using hermeneutics as a method for social theory. Coming back to Paul Ricœur’s definition of “critical hermeneutics” (in “Hermeneutics and the Critique of Ideology”, 1973) as reconciling a reinterpretation of cultural heritages with an interest in emancipation, I will attempt to demonstrate how it is precisely in a hermeneutical vein that much of the most fertile and philosophically informed critical social theory of the last decades has been put forward, drawing on examples from Ricœur, Michael Walzer, Charles Taylor, Axel Honneth and Hartmut Rosa. Through its emphasis on traits such as: 1) the first-person perspective; 2) interpretation and the symbolic fabric of social imaginaries; and 3) its connection with selfhood through self-interpretation hermeneutics will thus appear, or so I will argue, as a way to both make sense of the social and push for meaningful social transformation.