Overview

While many people engage in interpretation, it is not clear what interpretation is. This critical primer examines the nature of interpretation, strategies within interpretation, and negotiations about the adequacy of an interpretation, with special attention paid to possible roles hermeneutics (the theory of interpretation) plays in the academic study of religions. This book addresses a number of fundamental questions posed throughout the history of hermeneutics: • What is an “interpretation”? • What or who determines the meaning of a text? • What helps in navigating competitions or conflicts of interpretation? • What is the place of interpretation in the academy, relative to explanatory sciences and productive arts? Many books have focused on historical developments of hermeneutics, on key modern hermeneutic philosophers, or on specific sacred texts such as in biblical or Quranic hermeneutics. The unique approach taken to interpretation here is based on the fundamental axiom of philosophical hermeneutics—the hermeneutic priority of questioning. Through this, the author makes a case for the critical value of interpretation. Each chapter of this book refines a conceptual element that combines with others into a theory of interpretation useful for the classroom and in scholarship on hermeneutics.

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9781800503373

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Nathan Eric Dickman (PhD, The University of Iowa) is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of the Ozarks. He researches in hermeneutic phenomenology, philosophy of language, and comparative questions in philosophies of religions, with particular concerns about global social justice issues in ethics and religions. He has taught a breadth of courses, such as Critical Thinking, Islam, Ethics, Zen, Existentialism, and the Historical Jesus. His Using Questions to Think (Bloomsbury, 2021) examines the roles questions play in critical thinking and reasoning.

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