The Power of Dialogue: Critical Hermeneutics after Gadamer and Foucault(The Power of Dialogue)

Exemplifying a fusion of French and German approaches to social theory, "The Power of Dialogue" transforms Habermas's version of critical theory into a new "critical hermeneutics" that builds on both Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics and Foucault's studies of power and discourse. Kogler argues for a middle way between Gadamer's concept of interpretation as dialogue (which has been faulted for its strong focus on the agent's own self-understanding) and Foucault's conceptualization of the structure of discourse and the practices of power (which as been faulted for neglecting the role of individual subjectivity and freedom in social interaction). At the book's core is the question of how social power shapes and influences meaning and how the process of interpretation, while implicated in social forms of power, can nevertheless achieve reflective distance and a critique of power. It offers a perspective on such issues as the impact of prejudice and cultural background on scientific interpretation, the need to understand others without assimilating their otherness, and the "truth" of interpretation.

Table of Contents:
Introduction - the project of a critical hermeneutics. Part 1 The preunderstanding of the interpreter: preunderstanding and language - preunderstanding as a condition of interpretation - Gadamer's hermeneutic holism, the linguistic-ontological turn of hermeneutics, is interpretation an "event of play?"; the limits of linguistic idealism in hermeneutics - "being that can be understood is language", the limits of understanding; preunderstanding, meaning and social power - the hermeneutic conception of meaning, episteme and power practices - a conceptual clarification of the hermeneutic background, the question of critique. Part 2 Hermeneutics as critique: productive dialogue as a model of interpretation - the dialogic ethos as subjective orientation, dialogic truth interpretation or distanced context explanation - the methodological either/or of philosophical hermeneutics, ethical and methodological recognition of the other; the distancing disclosure of symbolic orders - toward a methodology of critical hermeneutics, Foucault's attempts to ground a perspective "outside hermeneutics", a hermeneutic grounding of discourse analysis; a hermeneutically sensitive theory of power - understanding and explanation - the methodological question concerning power, what is "power", or - toward a hermeneutic analysis of social power relations; conclusion - critical theory as critical hermeneutics - the dialogic constitution of the truth about power, hermeneutic reflexivity and dialogic subjectivity - the critical self.

About the Author :
Elisabeth Corell, the Wallenberg Fellow in Environment and Sustainability at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs from 2001 to 2006, is currently an independent scholar.

Review :
"Kogler's book will occupy a special niche in the field, because althoughthere are some good books on Gadamer, and a plethora on Foucault, there arenot many that successfully bring Gadamer and Foucault together. Debatesabout the effectiveness of critical resistance to social patterns ofdomination are heated these days, and Kogler's book should show that thereis a sensible middle ground and not a standoff between the two majorapproaches to this problem." David Hoy, Professor & Chair, Department of Philosophy,University of California, Santa Cruz