The Philosophical Dialogue

Vittorio Hösle, Steven Rendall

Description

No overall history of the philosophical dialogue has appeared since Rudolf Hirzel's two-volume study was published in 1895. In The Philosophical Dialogue: A Poetics and a Hermeneutics, Vittorio Hösle covers the development of the genre from its beginning with Plato to the late twentieth-century work of Iris Murdoch and Paul Feyerabend. Hösle presents a taxonomy and a doctrine of categories for the complex literary genre of the philosophical dialogue, focusing on the poetical laws that structure the genre, and develops hermeneutical rules for its correct interpretation.

Following an introduction that employs the categories of subjectivity and intersubjectivity to classify philosophy's modes of expression, Hösle's book is structured by the classical triad of the production, inner structure, and reception of the literary dialogue. To explain what is meant by "philosophical dialogue," Hösle first deals with the specific traits of philosophical dialogue in contrast to other literary forms of philosophy and its special status among them. Second, he distinguishes the philosophical dialogue as a literary genre from actual philosophical conversation, and as a philosophical literary genre from nonphilosophical literary dialogues. Finally, he takes up the connection between literary form and philosophical content in the philosophical dialogue. Numerous authors of dialogues are discussed, with a special focus on Plato, Cicero, Augustine, Hume, and Diderot.

Originally published in Germany as Der philosophische Dialog: Eine Poetik und Hermeneutik (2006), this book not only contributes to the philosophical discussion of dialogue but to a great extent defines it. This fine translation will prove useful to both philosophers and literary critics in the English-speaking world.

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie générale
• Esthétique et philosophie de l'art
• Theater
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Theatre
• Methodology
• Cicero
• Aesthetics
• Augustine of Hippo
• Aristotle
• Plato
• Augustine
• Cicéron (homonymie)
• Iris Murdoch
• Paul Feyerabend
• Hume
• Denis Diderot

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268088026
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

T H E P H I L O S O P H I C A L D I A L O G U E

T H E

P H I L O S O P H I C A L D I A L O G U E A Poetics and a Hermeneutics 5 V I T T O R I O H Ö S L E

Translated by S T E V E N R E N D A L L

University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana

Copyright © 2012 by University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hösle, Vittorio, 1960 – [Philosophische Dialog. English] The philosophical dialogue : a poetics and a hermeneutics / Vittorio Hösle ; translated by Steven Rendall. pages cm Previously published in German, under the title Der philosophische Dialog : eine Poetik und Hermeneutik. München : Beck, c2006. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-268-03097-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-268-03097-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Philosophy. 2. Dialogue. I. Rendall, Steven, translator. II. Title. B53. H6313 2012 101— dc23

2012037027

∞The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

In Memory

of my beloved uncle

Josef Hösle

(1924 – 2005)

in gratitude for many conversations

in which his virtues were manifested

  

 

    

PA RT I

   

          

       

List of Abbreviations Preface

Introduction

The Place of Philosophical Dialogue among the Literary Forms of Philosophy

Conversation and Dialogue: Historical and Fictional Dialogue — Chat and Discussion — Philosophical and Nonphilosophical Dialogue

On the Relationship between Form and Content in the Philosophical Dialogue

The Production of Philosophical Dialogue

The Stages of the Philosophical Dialogue’s Historical Development

Social Presuppositions and Obstacles

Individual Presuppositions and Obstacles

The Problem of Authorial Intention

ix xv

1

6

19

48

71

120 131 136

PA RT I I

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                      

      

                     

PA RT I I I

      

    

Bibliography Index

viii

Contents

The Universe of the Philosophical Dialogue

Individual Dialogues and Groups of Dialogues

Introductory Taxonomy: Direct, Indirect, and Mixed Dialogues

The Modal and Ontological Status of the Literary Universe —Personification and the Problem of Realism—Dream and Dialogue

The Space of Conversation

The Time of Conversation

The Number of Persons in the Conversation

The Initial Conditions of Conversation: Arranged and Accidental Conversations — Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Conversations — Authority and Autonomy

The Goal of Conversation: Learning From versus Learning About —Dissent, Consensus, Aporia —Total versus Partial Communication

The Ethics of Conversation

The Logic of Conversation

The Aesthetics of the Dialogue

The Reception of the Philosophical Dialogue

Conversation between Different Dialogic Universes

Conversation between Author and Reader

464 478

155 163

185

210 237 258 290

331

374 406 430

443

458

            

adult. libr. Orig.=De adulteratione librorum Origenis(Rufinus)

Ammonium (Ammon.) in Cat.=In Aristotelis Categorias commentarius

Aristophanes (Ar.) Ach.=Acharnenses

Aristotle (Arist.) Po.=Poetica Rh.=Rhetorica Metaph.=Metaphysica SE=Sophistici Elenchi Top.=Topica

Augustine (Aug.) C. acad.=Contra academicos Beat. vit.=Beata vita Conf.=Confessiones De civ. dei=De civitate dei De mag.=De magistro Ord.=De ordine Soliloq.=Soliloquia Retract.=Retractationes

Boethius Cons.=Consolatio philosophiae

i

x