Subjectivity and Hermeneutics

Symposium, 2004

'Introduction' to The Routledge Companion to Philosophical Hermeneutics, 2015

A Companion to Pragmatism, 2006

The Person and the Challenges. The Journal of Theology, Education, Canon Law and Social Studies Inspired by Pope John Paul II, 2020

One of the most important problems of philosophy is the “critical problem”, the problem of bridge between the human mind and the world, the external reality. It is the question of relations between the subject and the object. The interesting solution for this problem is given by Bernard Lonergan SJ (1904–1984), one of the most important Catholic English-speaking thinkers of the twentieth century. It would be difficult to point to someone who influenced the American Catholic philosophy and theology from the inside out more than he did: that is why he is called the “American Rahner „. He tries to connect the great tradition of Thomism and Augustinianism and, on the other hand, classical and modern philosophy, German idealism and English Empiricism. At the heart of his thinking is the theory of the human mind. With the help of transcendental and phenomenological methods, Lonergan demonstrates that the mental structure of man consists of five levels: the empirical level, the intellectua...

Hermeneutics is derived from the Greek word ερµηνευειν (hermeneuein), meaning to interpret, and its derivative ερµηνεια (hermeneia) meaning interpretation.

South African Journal of Philosophy, 2010

An analysis of the concepts of subjectivity and objectivity at work in standard introductions to philosophy reveals an oversight of self-knowledge and tracing the move from a common-sense culture to a scientific one throws up the idea of self-appropriation as the hidden heart of modern thought. The aftermath of the rise of modern physics has been a picture of reality as alienated from our commonly experienced sense of purposes, aims, and intentions as defining our everyday lives, what we may call our "subjectivity". The existentialist reaction to this has been stifled by this Cartesian dichotomy but the non-sceptical neo-Thomist approach of Bernard Lonergan uncovers the element of self-reflective judgment in knowledge and grounds an act of self-affirmation, thematizing responsibility and agency. I present, with critique, influential moments in the genesis of the received notions of objectivity and of subjectivity, and argue for the inadequacy of Nagel's problematization of these categories of contemporary thought. With the aim of suggesting a rethink of how philosophy questions are framed in our syllabus I argue two recent papers by colleagues exhibit this very oversight of self-knowledge.

2011

Anglican theological review, 2005

David Jasper delivers what his title promises: a quick overview of hermeneutics, from its role in the biblical texts themselves, to the latest post­ modern criticism. The book shows its origins in undergraduate instruction; Jasper addresses the reader directly, with frequent asides and exclamations. One would be hard-pressed to find an introduction to hermeneutics that covers more terrain in fewer pages, with so relaxed a literary style.