Unfinished Worlds Hermeneutics, Aesthetics and Gadamer (1st edition) (PDF)
Synopsis
'With Unfinished Worlds, Nicholas Davey has not only given us the first book in English on Gadamer's hermeneutical aesthetics, but also made a compelling case for the importance of Gadamer to our understanding of the structures that give rise to art and human experience.'Clive Cazeaux, Cardiff Metropolitan University'Nicholas Davey did not write a book on Gadamer; he wrote about the question: how to look at art, how art changes our understanding of the world and ourselves. After Davey's clear writing the reader will see how Gadamer changed our philosophy of art based on phenomenological hermeneutics.'Ben Vedder, Radboud University NijmegenA study of Gadamer's paradigm shifting aesthetics, its transformation into hermeneutics and its development as a mode of attentive practiceUnfinished Worlds explores the far reaching consequences of Gadamer's hermeneutical critique of aesthetics. By demonstrating that the experience of art is grounded in the objectivities of language, history and tradition, aesthetics becomes an exploration of how we participate in structures of meaning that transcend us individually. The presentation of words and images as transmittable placeholders for meanings and concepts allows hermeneutics to offer a persuasive account of how artworks effectively communicate. This new 'poetics' is relevant not only to the understanding of art but also to showing, explaining and defending the cognitive content of the humanities. Nicholas Davey demonstrates how hermeneutics transforms aesthetic reflection into a poignant, attentive practice open to the unexpected as a means of challenging and transforming received experience. Hermeneutic aesthetics not only radicalises our understanding of aesthetic education but it provides a sound basis for re-thinking humanities disciplines as critical-creative practices able to re-envision the future. Nicholas Davey is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Dundee. He is the author of Unquiet Understanding: Gadamer and Philosophical Hermeneutics (2006).Cover image:Balanced, 2008Oil and graphite on canvas, 95 x 156 cm Paul SaroglouCover design:[EUP logo] www.euppublishing.com Hans-Georg Gadamer's poetics completely overturns the European aesthetic tradition. By concentrating on the experience of meaning, Unfinished Worlds shows how Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics transforms aesthetics into a mode of attentive practice. It has deep implications for all of the humanities, and how we can understand the meaning of poetry, art, literature, history and theology. His emphasis on participation promises an approach that will revolutionise aesthetic and hermeneutic practice, and gives us new ways to think about the cultural productivity and social legitimacy of the humanities.Book details
- Author:
- Nicholas Davey
- ISBN:
- 9780748686223
- Related ISBNs:
- 9780748686223
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- Pages:
- N/A
- Reading age:
- Not specified
- Includes images:
- No
- Date of addition:
- 2016-05-06
- Usage restrictions:
- Copyright
- Copyright date:
- 2013
- Copyright by:
- Edinburgh University Press
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Categories:
- Literature and Fiction