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Single Idea 20925

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / H. Continental Philosophy / 3. Hermeneutics ]

Full Idea

Derrida worried that hermeneutics blunts the disruptive power of truth by forcing it conform to the interpreter's mental horizon.

Gist of Idea

Hermeneutics blunts truth, by conforming it to the interpreter

Source

report of Jacques Derrida (works [1990]) by Jens Zimmermann - Hermeneutics: a very short introduction 3 'The heart'

Book Ref

Zimmerman,Jens: 'Hermeneutics: very short introduction' [OUP 2015], p.48

A Reaction

Good heavens - I agree with Derrida. Very French, though, to see the value of truth in its disruptiveness. I tend to find the truth reassuring, but then I'm English.

The 28 ideas from 'works'

21887 Derrida focuses on other philosophers, rather than on science [Derrida]
21888 Philosophy is just a linguistic display [Derrida]
21896 Philosophy aims to build foundations for thought [Derrida, by May]
21893 Philosophy is necessarily metaphorical, and its writing is aesthetic [Derrida]
21892 Interpretations can be interpreted, so there is no original 'meaning' available [Derrida]
21881 We aim to explore the limits of expression (as in Mallarmé's poetry) [Derrida]
20925 Hermeneutics blunts truth, by conforming it to the interpreter [Derrida, by Zimmermann,J]
21883 Sincerity can't be verified, so fiction infuses speech, and hence reality also [Derrida]
21882 Sentences are contradictory, as they have opposite meanings in some contexts [Derrida]
20934 Hermeneutics is hostile, trying to overcome the other person's difference [Derrida, by Zimmermann,J]
21895 Structuralism destroys awareness of dynamic meaning [Derrida]
21934 The idea of being as persistent presence, and meaning as conscious intelligibility, are self-destructive [Derrida, by Glendinning]
4756 Derrida says that all truth-talk is merely metaphor [Derrida, by Engel]
21877 True thoughts are inaccessible, in the subconscious, prior to speech or writing [Derrida]
21878 Names have a subjective aspect, especially the role of our own name [Derrida]
21889 'I' is the perfect name, because it denotes without description [Derrida]
21879 Even Kripke can't explain names; the word is the thing, and the thing is the word [Derrida]
21894 Madness and instability ('the demonic hyperbole') lurks in all language [Derrida]
21886 Meanings depend on differences and contrasts [Derrida]
21890 Heidegger showed that passing time is the key to consciousness [Derrida]
21880 'Tacit theory' controls our thinking (which is why Freud is important) [Derrida]
21884 Capacity for repetitions is the hallmark of language [Derrida]
21935 The sign is only conceivable as a movement between elusive presences [Derrida]
21930 For Aristotle all proper nouns must have a single sense, which is the purpose of language [Derrida]
21933 Writing functions even if the sender or the receiver are absent [Derrida, by Glendinning]
21931 'Dissemination' is opposed to polysemia, since that is irreducible, because of multiple understandings [Derrida, by Glendinning]
21885 Words exist in 'spacing', so meanings are never synchronic except in writing [Derrida]
21891 The good is implicitly violent (against evil), so there is no pure good [Derrida]