Topic: 

What is the Context of Interpretive Research? From Research Based in Linguistic Traditions to the Experience of the Diversity of Languages

演講摘要Abstract:

It is a basic tenet of contemporary philosophical hermeneutics that interpretive research (and experience) is dependent on context. Moreover, much of current debate remains influenced by Hans-Georg Gadamer’s position from his classic Truth and Method that while the validity of interpretative research is universal, such research takes shape in the world as given to us through tradition. Yet, Gadamer’s association of interpretive research with tradition raises the specter that interpretive research may be complicit in projects of cultural or linguistic nationalism. This specter becomes all the more concerning when interpretive research takes place within the context of national or other traditions implicated in projects such as imperialism, colonialism, or ecological destruction. The purpose of this lecture is to turn to some of Gadamer’s important, but underappreciated, later essays on the world’s diversity of languages in order to discharge this specter. In this, as I argue, Gadamer’s later essays bring into focus that interpretive research depends not only on the context of national traditions, but, more originally, on the context of intercultural exchange that first give national traditions their distinctive character.

時間：114年11月24日（一）下午13:30~16:00

地點：東吳大學第一教研大樓8樓R802口譯教室 (由東吳翻譯碩士班口譯團隊提供中文口譯服務)

Topic:

Toward a “Translative” Hermeneutics

邁向「翻譯性的」詮釋學

演講摘要Abstract:

It has become a mainstay of contemporary philosophical hermeneutics to characterize interpretive experience as an ‘infinite dialogue’ or ‘conversation.’ With this characterization, Gadamer reminds us that interpretive research cannot be conducted in isolation but rather always and again finds an impetus in questions, challenges, and new ideas posed by an interlocutor or text. Yet, as I wish to show, at least some interpretive experience is best described not as conversational but, instead, translational. This, I argue, is because some of the most important question, challenges, and new ideas we can face come from those with whom we find it impossible to converse. After all, it can become impossible to converse not only because we are not familiar with the other’s language. And, it can also become impossible to converse in another sense because of histories of violence, exclusion, or disrespect that make it initially unthinkable to be moved by questions, challenges, or new ideas posed by another person or text. In both kinds of cases, interpretive research demands that we first reintroduce the possibility to converse by creating a more encompassing context of meaning. The purpose of this lecture is to clarify what it means to create such an encompassing context in reference to the theories of translation found in Hans-Georg Gadamer and Walter Benjamin.

時間：114年11月25日（二）上午09:30~12:00

地點：東吳大學第一教研大樓8樓R802口譯教室 (由東吳翻譯碩士班口譯團隊提供中文口譯服務)

Topic: 

On the Ethics of Hermeneutics: Hermeneutic Phronesis as Humanistic Know-how and as Human Wisdom

論詮釋學的倫理學：作為人文實踐知能與智慧的詮釋實踐智慧

演講摘要Abstract:

Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics is celebrated for the claim that interpretive research requires a certain kind of practical wisdom, or, phronesis. In this, scholars observe that Gadamer associates the achievement of phronesis with the cultivation of common sense, judgment, and taste that allow an interpreter to achieve fitting interpretations of matters under their investigation. Less appreciated, however, is Gadamer’s claim that the achievement of phronesis allows one to become radically undogmatic, already ready for and open to the possibility of new experiences. In this, as I wish to argue, we become radically open not because of the development of our expertise as interpreters, but, more to the point, because interpretive research regularly displaces the validity of our initial understandings, or prejudices, about ourselves, others, and the world. Accordingly, as I conclude, hermeneutic phronesis is not only a humanistic knowhow that allows us to interpret well. It is also the very human, even tragic wisdom of our finitude: namely, the self-understanding that however much hermeneutic know-how we have, our interpretations that result from our interpretive research might well prove to be wrong.

時間：114年11月26日（三）下午14:00-16:00

地點：國立臺灣師範大學翻譯研究所博愛大樓505教室

主題：

Art as Testimony to the Width of the World

藝術—這個遼闊世界的見證

演講摘要Abstract:

Those critical theorists who affirm the power of avant-garde artworks to upend the status quo often also object to the conservatism of hermeneutical approaches that celebrate the normative significance of ‘classics’ for their power to make tradition speak to us. Yet, as I wish to show, hermeneutical approaches that celebrate the ‘classics’ can also upend the status quo by showing us that the world is wider than we had previously thought. Building on Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutical considerations of our experience of art, I argue that ‘classics’ from the past, when interpreted properly, prove to be of ‘contemporary’ relevance because they can bring into question even the most entrenched prejudices of our times. In illustration, this lecture will consider an innovative use of the ‘classic’ in contemporary art: namely, in what are sometimes called ‘neo-traditional’ artworks that rely on modern artistic techniques to present classic motifs and themes. In focus will be how the contemporary Tlingit artist Preston Singletary’s renowned Raven and the Box of Daylight sheds light on the settler-colonial experience by using etched glass to present classic Tlingit artistic motifs and themes.

時間：114年11月28日（五）下午14:30~16:30

地點：輔仁大學外語學院德芳大樓 FG 507

西奧多·喬治教授（Prof. Theodore George）是美國德州農工大學哲學系教授、校長卓越學人榮譽教授 （Presidential Impact Fellow）。他曾任Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy主編，並於2013至2016年間擔任北美哲學詮釋學學會（North American Society for Philosophical Hermeneutics）會長。喬治教授為當代哲學詮釋學的重要代表人物，師承Günter Figal與Dennis Schmidt兩位高達美（H. G. Gadamer）的著名學生。他的研究涵蓋詮釋學、倫理學、美學、黑格爾與後康德歐陸哲學，並兼任加拿大卡加利大學護理學院榮譽教授。代表著作包括The Responsibility to Understand: Hermeneutical Contours of Ethical Life（2020）、Tragedies of Spirit: Tracing Finitude in Hegel’s Phenomenology（2006），並編輯The Gadamerian Mind（2021）及 Gadamer’s Truth and Method at 65（2026）等書。喬治教授認為詮釋學並不侷限於哲學研究領域，而是能跨越諸多學科，對人類生存的經驗做出可能的詮釋，而且當其他研究方法無法獲得預期的答案時，詮釋學仍能幫助我們持續與探究的問題進行對話，使得涉及人的理解及詮釋這一存有者之思的活動，得以延展至各學科領域而有其普遍性。近年他將詮釋學研究轉向翻譯與世界文學領域，主張翻譯是突破西方詮釋學侷限的重要媒介，並倡議建立「強健的全球翻譯文化」，以促進不同文明間的理解與對話。他也堅持詮釋學的實際運用性，並與諸多領域的學者共同撰寫Conducting Hermeneutic Research: From Philosophy to Practice（2025）一書第二增訂版，對於如何將詮釋學運用至其他學科有諸多論點。