Blogging through Truth and Method post 7: Dilthey's Entanglement in the Aporias of Historicism (218-241)
The section of Truth and Method that contains this chapter is called “Historical Preparations,” and one of the oddities of blogging about it is that I’m writing about an entire…
Blogging through Truth and Method post 6: The Questionableness of Romantic Hermeneutics (173-218)
In this section, Gadamer attempts to undermine Romantic hermeneutics; to do so, he will retrace Wilhelm Dilthey’s steps with different goals than the ones that Dilthey had. Hermeneutics…
Blogging through Truth and Method post 5: Aesthetic and Hermeneutic Consequences (134-169)
When Michial and I read Being and Time back in 2009, the best thing about that book was that, through careful phenomenological examination, Heidegger gave me occasion to think carefully…
Blogging through Truth and Method, post 4: Play as the Clue to Ontological Explanation (101-134)
Gadamer’s analysis of aesthetics will be oriented around the notion of play, but he wants to liberate the concept from the subjective bearing that it finds in the work of…
Blogging through Truth and Method, post 3: Retrieving the Question of Artistic Truth (81-100)
Art has not always been a matter of “appearance” as opposed to the sciences’ “reality” or a matter of the “timeless” in any uncomplicated sense. This section of Truth and…
Blogging Through Truth and Method, Post 2: The Subjectivization of Aesthetics (42-81)
In the last few pages of the previous section, Gadamer dismissed the relegation of taste to the realm of aesthetics; in this section, he is going to critique two major…
Blogging Through Truth and Method post 1: Introduction and the Humanist Tradition (1-42)
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, Second Revised Edition Certain writers linger at the borders of certain disciplines, and I always feel somewhat bad for neglecting them. Thus in 2009 Michial…
Purgatory 2013: The Dante Apocalypse (Cantos 29-33)
To get the first question out of the way, yes, I’ve been calling the last Cantos of Purgatory the Dante Apocalypse for several years now, and my term predates the…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #106: Witches
General Introduction – The end of the season – On doctoral regalia – Summer courses – Slightly less minor internet celebrities – Ongoing projects Witches in the Bible – Saul…
Purgatory 2013: Back to the Garden (Cantos 25-28)
Rather than write a giant post about the last nine Cantos, I’m going to attempt two short ones, the last dealing mainly with Dante’s apocalypse. If, as I plan, I…
Purgatory 2013: How to Get out of Purgatory (Cantos 18-24)
It’s fitting that my Dante posts stalled out right when it was time to write about sloth, no? Good Desire and Bad Desire In Canto 18 Virgil continues his explanation…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #105: The Freedom of a Christian
General Introduction – Yet more weather talk – Light and heavy episodes – Books for aspiring seminarians – Listener feedback Historical Background – The dedicatory epistle – Flattering the pope…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #104: Intellectuals
General Introduction – More weather talk – Feed problems Not Etymology but History – David turns to the OED – The Enlightenment – Byron’s parody – Intellectual vs. physical –…
Purgatory 2013: Free Will and Wrath (Cantos 14-17)
The Architecture of Purgatory This section of Cantos begins to reveal connections between the terraces, both in terms of the media through which the tragic and exemplary stories come to…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #103: Edgar Allan Poe
General Introduction – Should we talk about the weather? – Listener feedback – The Purgatory Experiment Poe Myths – Marrying his cousin – Drug addiction – Alcoholism – Death –…