伽达默尔论艺术作品的存在与诠释学的真理

伽达默尔拒绝从审美体验开始他的艺术诠释学考察,而把焦点方放在艺术作品的存在方式上,以此他希望恢复艺术经验的真理要求。在他看来,艺术作品像游戏一样,以实际发生在那里的方式存在;在作品中真理作为无蔽而发生并敞开存在的意义。此外,艺术游戏的重复发生形成可重复的结构,它对参与者发挥着主宰作用;在另一方面,可重复的结构只存在于具体发生之中,它把其中新的因素融会进自身之中,从而得到充实;这种充实是通过理解的有限视域的融合而实现的,因而结构是可变的,并且并不趋向最终目的。这种既敞开又充实的真理在艺术作品中的发生有赖于摹仿。在这一背景下,文章集中讨论伽达默尔的摹仿概念。文章指出,伽达默尔强调摹仿不是盲目的复制,而是借再现来实现的创造活动,它把关于现实的本真理解呈现在那里。这正是诠释学真理的发生,借此过去和未来得到中介。作者着重阐明伽达默尔的如下意图,即突显摹仿抵制抽象的力量——摹仿通过创制新的存在而使先前的东西来到自己被呈现的存在,并借此被提升到自身更丰富更真实的存在,而如此被创造的存在整体拒绝任何方法论的简化和区分。     

Truth Values and the Value of Truth

This paper explores the ways in which truth is better than falsehood, and suggests that, among other things, it depends on the kinds of proposition to which these values are attached. Ordinary singular propositions like "It is raining" seem to fit best the bivalent "scheme" of classical logic, the general proposition "It is always raining" is more appropriately rated according to how often it rains, and a "practically vague" proposition like "The lecture will start at 1" is appropriately rated according to its nearness to exactness. Implications for logic of this "rating system" are commented on.     

从真理立场的改变看海德格尔"存在"运思的转换

海德格尔在"真理"问题上立场之改变标志着其"存在"运思的转换,根本说来,这体现在此在(Dasein)之"此(Da)"的意义置换:<存在与时间>中,"此"意味着此在生存论诸环节的敞开;<论真理的本质>中则意味着存在之澄明.由此,海德格尔对存在问题的追问从"此在之真理"过渡到了"存在之真理",也即是从间接说及存在转移到了直接去说存在、存在的命运.     

Self-Knowledge and the Elusive Pleasure of Vengeance

Philosophia - The present essay looks to add to the body of literature that seeks to clarify the nature of vengeance and evaluate it morally. However, unlike previous philosophical investigations...     

Elusive epistemological justification

What does it take for some epistemological thinking to be epistemically justified? Indeed, is that outcome even possible? This paper argues that it is not possible: no epistemological thinking can ever be epistemically justified. A vicious infinite regress of epistemological reflection is the price that would have to be paid for having some such justification. Clearly, that price would be too high.     

Logical Truth and Tarskian Logical Truth

This paper examines the question of the extensional correctness of Tarskian definitions of logical truth and logical consequence. I identify a few different informal properties which are necessary for a sentence to be an informal logical truth and look at whether they are necessary properties of Tarskian logical truths. I examine arguments by John Etchemendy and Vann McGee to the effect that some of those properties are not necessary properties of some Tarskian logical truths, and find them unconvincing. I stress the point that since the hypothesis that Tarski's definitions are extensionally correct is deeply entrenched, the burden of proof is still on the shoulders of Tarski's critics, who have not lifted the burden. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Elusive narrators in literature and film

Subjunctivitis is the doctrine that what is distinctive about knowledge is essential modal in character, and thus is captured by certain subjunctive conditionals. One principal formulation of subjunctivism invokes a ``sensitivity condition' (Nozick, De Rose), the other invokes a ``safety condition' (Sosa). It is shown in detail how defects in the sensitivity condition generate unwanted results, and that the virtues of that condition are merely apparent. The safety condition is untenable also, because it is too easily satisfied. A powerful motivation for adopting subjunctivism would be that it provides a solution to the problem of misleading evidence, but in fact, it does not.     

Being Right,and Being in the Right

This paper presents a critique of a prevailing conception of the relation between moral reasoning and judgment on the one hand, and moral goodness on the other. I argue that moral reasoning is inescapably vulnerable to moral, as opposed to merely theoretical, failure. This, I argue, means that there is something deeply misleading in the way that Kant's moral theory, and some of its main rivals, have invited us to conceive of their subject matter.