Ethical Hermeneutics: Rationalist Enrique Dussel's Philosophy of Liberation

by Michael D. Barber

Overview

The essence of Dussel's thought is presented through the concept of ethical hermeneuticswhich seeks to interpret reality from the viewpoint of what Emmanuel Levinas presents as the other- those who are vanquished, forgotten, or excluded from existent socio-political or cultural systems. Barber traces Dussel's development toward Levinas' philosophy through his discussion of the Hegelian dialectic and through the stages of Dussel's own ethical theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823217038
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1999
Series:	Perspectives in Continental Philosophy , #2
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	1730L (what's this?)

About the Author

Michael D. Barber is Professor of Philosophy at St. Louis Universityand the author of several books on the phenomenology of the social world.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	Introduction	xv
1.	Emmanuel Levinas's Phenomenology and the Allegiance to Reason	1
a.	The Critique of Theory: The Horizons of Theory	2
b.	The Phenomenology of the Other and the Struggle to Be Rational	4
c.	Phenomenology and Rationality in Levinas	8
2.	Dussel's Philosophy of Liberation: Discovery and Integration of Levinas's Thought	18
a.	Levinas and Dussel's Anthropological Works	19
b.	Levinas and Dussel's Reading of Hegel	26
c.	Levinas and the Ethics of Latin American Liberation	28
3.	Overcoming Levinas: Analectical Method and Ethical Hermeneutics	50
a.	Analectical Method Beyond Levinas: Latin American Mediations and the Analogical Word of the Other	50
b.	Analectical Method and the Unmasking of False Universalism	57
c.	Analectical Method, Ethical Hermeneutics, and the Positive Assessment of Reason	67
4.	Ethical Hermeneutics: History, Economics, and Theology	82
a.	History	82
b.	Economics (Marx)	90
c.	Religion/Theology	105
5.	Rationality in Dussel: The American Critics	113
a.	Cerutti and Schutte on Dussel	113
b.	Assessing the Criticism	116
6.	Rationality in Dussel: The Critique of Karl-Otto Apel	127
a.	Karl-Otto Apel's Transcendental Pragmatics	127
b.	Can Transcendental Pragmatics Replace the Philosophy of Liberation?	132
c.	Is Dussel's Reappropriation of Marx Anachronistic?	142
d.	Conclusions	154
	Bibliography	161
	Index	175

Editorial Reviews

". . .this is a wonderful book and it should be read by all interested not just on Levinas's work but also on the more general question of the future of alterity in an age of philosophical homogenization and economically driven culturally hybridization.

Stony Brook University - Eduardo Mendieta

This trailblazing volume opens an ethical dimension of philosophical hermeneutics and offers a …. well argued, clear, and coherent… introduction to Dussel’s ‘philosophy of liberation.’

Choice

Barber (philosophy, St. Louis U.) summarizes Dussel's thought using the concept of ethical hermeneutics, which seeks to interpret reality from the viewpoint of what Emmanuel Levinas presents as the "other". Barber then discusses Dussel's leanings toward Levinas's philosophy through discussion of the Hegelian dialectic and through the stages of Dussel's own ethical theory. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

". . .this is a wonderful book and it should be read by all interested not just on Levinas's work but also on the more general question of the future of alterity in an age of philosophical homogenization and economically driven culturally hybridization.——Eduardo Mendieta, Stony Brook University

From the Publisher