Abstract

In my introduction I make some brief remarks indicating the topic of my dissertation. I argue that we must restore political philosophy to its former prominence through a hermeneutical reading of its tradition. My dissertation argues that the hermeneutical theory developed by Hans-Georg Gadamer provides the appropriate basis to carry out this rethinking of political philosophy. ;Chapter one argues that in reducing political philosophy to a family of naturalized social sciences, human beings lose sight of themselves and their ethical being. Modern thought does this when it narrows the concept of praxis to the application of science to technical tasks, or technical control. The chapter then considers hermeneutic alternatives in the approaches of Isaiah Berlin and Martin Heidegger. ;Chapter two is an account of Leo Strauss' teaching on political philosophy. Strauss argues that the historicist character of Heideggerian ontology marked the culmination of modern philosophy, and not an alternative to it. Strauss' writings are an attempt to retrieve the Platonic understanding of natural right that provides the normative limit to human conduct. ;Chapter three develops Gadamer's conception of hermeneutics. It focuses on two central, but controversial claims: the universality of hermeneutic understanding and its instantiation as dialogue, which constitutes an ethical relationship that forms the essence of the political. It is the constraints of a dialogical setting that provides the normative limits to human conduct and brings about community with others. Hermeneutics constitutes our basic comportment to the world and others. ;In the conclusion I consider the hermeneutic turn in contemporary political philosophy. In particular, I look at John Rawls' Political Liberalism , which constitutes a significant transformation of his theory of justice. I argue that this transformation is a hermeneutic one, where Rawls now shows that 'justice as fairness' is an articulation of the fundamental ideas latent in the public political culture of a democratic society. I conclude with a hermeneutical critique of Rawls' theory.