Philosophy Today

Volume 59, Issue 4, Fall 2015

The Emergency of Philosophy

Paulette Kidder
Pages 685-698

Emergency, Climate Change, and the Hermeneutic Virtues

This essay begins from Vattimo’s and Zabala’s account of hermeneutic communism as an antifoundationalist mode of thought that promotes a state of “emergency” by undermining those established truths that promote only the interests of history’s winners. The essay takes up the crisis of public discourse concerning climate change, arguing that Gadamer’s thought indicates, first, how hermeneutics can respond to the objection that it is too relativistic to contribute to discussions concerning climate change, and second, that there are hermeneutic virtues whose exercise could improve the discussions of how to meet this serious challenge. These hermeneutic virtues and commitments are: letting language speak us, actively seeking to be proved wrong, respecting (earned) authority, being open in conversation with others, respecting others’ freedom, and acknowledging one’s limits.