critical hermeneutics

is a deployment of hermeneutics as a means of penetrating false consciousness, discovering the ideological nature of belief systems, promoting distortion-free communication, as well as accomplishing a liberating consensus.

then employed as a means of penetrating false consciousness, discovering the ideological nature of belief systems, promoting distortion-free communication, as well as accomplishing a liberating consensus. Habermas further believes in a 'depth' hermeneutics which uncovers and undoes the deception and distortion inherent in communication.

is concerned largely with suspicious interpretation of any and all ideologies and institutions that support or maintain ruling power structures.

Hermeneutics, placed in the service of critical theory, calls for a special and suspicious interpretation of any and all ideologies and institutions that support or maintain ruling power structures.

is concerned on the one hand with the dangers of unconscious reproduction and linguistic hegemony and on the other with the promises of bias-neutralizing reflection and anti-authoritarian application.

The four main principles of critical hermeneutics include reproduction, hegemony, reflection and application. The first two are principles which must be recognized and circumvented while the latter two are recognized as principles of possibility. The aim of critical hermeneutics is to move away from reproduction because it legitimizes the traditional power structures. For critical hermeneutics, reproduction is largely an unconscious, unreflective diffusion of the authority and power structures of tradition. Hegemony is also to be avoided. Critical theorist see interpretation more than linguistic, as philosophical hermeneutical scholars would stress. Rather, the social conditions and power relations always condition the acquisition and use of language to some degree and create a hegemonic relationship with language. Forces concealed in linguistic behavior are seen to determine interpretation and it is these nefarious forces that must be revealed and disposed of so that true emancipation can occur. The last two principles of critical hermeneutics include reflection and application and are seen as methods of emancipation. Reflection is seen as a method to neutralize the biases of tradition, and therefore interpretation can be freed from distortion. Interpretation, if critically based, always has a positive application vis-à-vis the emancipation of the interpreter from authoritative structures (Gallagher, 1992).

is guided by the four main principles aiming to delegitimize traditional power structures: reproduction and hegemony (which must be avoided) and reflection and application (which are principles of possibility).

to move away from reproduction because it legitimizes the traditional power structures. (Gallagher, 1992).

is the marriage of critical theory (i.e. Emancipation from political power) to hermeneutics in order to penetrate false consciousness, discovering the ideological nature of belief systems, promoting distortion-free communication, as well as accomplishing a liberating consensus.

Another tradition found within contemporary hermeneutical thought is critical hermeneutics. Gallagher (1992) explains how twentieth century thinkers Jurgen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel developed this version, with the express aim of marrying hermeneutics to critical theory. Critical theory's goal is the social and individual emancipation from the political power and economic forces found in advanced class systems. Hermeneutics is then employed as a means of penetrating false consciousness, discovering the ideological nature of belief systems, promoting distortion-free communication, as well as accomplishing a liberating consensus. Habermas further believes in a 'depth' hermeneutics which uncovers and undoes the deception and distortion inherent in communication.

critical hermeneutics, n.Definitions

critical hermeneutics