Making mathematics inclusive: interpreting the meaning of classroom activity.

The article discusses the view of the author on using hermeneutics. According to the author, hermeneutics is the theory of interpretation which is categorized in forms including conservative hermeneutics, moderate hermeneutics, and radical hermeneutics. The author also mentions that teachers must be provided with support and training that will enable them to make judgments

Faithful Hermeneutics

This article was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools on January 9, 2009 as part of a panel on Scriptural and Constitutional Hermeneutics. The panel was co-sponsored by the Law and Religion Section, Section on Jewish Law, and Section on Islamic Law, and the papers will be published by the Michigan State Law Review. My article compares legal and religious hermeneutics by exploring the dual nature of what I term faithful hermeneutics. The ambiguity evoked by this phrase is intentional. On one hand, it suggests an investigation of the relationship between legal and religious interpretation by comparing hermeneutical activities undertaken by faithful adherents to these two different textual traditions. In this first sense, it is to compare how these practices are the hermeneutics of the faithful. On the other hand, the phrase suggests an analysis of how interpreters in these two traditions remain faithful to the nature of their practice. In this second sense, it is to compare how hermeneutics can be faithfully accomplished. My thesis is that these two senses of faithful hermeneutics are connected. The fact that it is faithful adherents who engage in the interpretive practice in large part defines how they can, and should, remain faithful to the interpretive enterprise. I anchor my argument in Hans-Georg Gadamer\u27s critique of historicism, in which he references the practices of legal and religious hermeneutics. Gadamer\u27s philosophical hermeneutics explains how faith is a prerequisite of understanding, even as understanding revitalizes and reshapes the faith one brings to a textual tradition. I then unfold the critical dimensions of faithful hermeneutics by comparing the work of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) and Gianni Vattimo on the Catholic tradition. I argue that these two thinkers display both the broad range and the non-methodological character of the critical insights of faithful hermeneutics. I conclude by suggesting that the parallels between religious and legal hermeneutics are instructive, but that we remember that it would be a mistake to conflate these two instances of faithful hermeneutics in our secular age

After Hermeneutics?

Recently Alain Badiou and Quentin Meillassoux have attacked the core of the phenomenological hermeneutic tradition: its commitment to the finitude of human understanding. If accurate, this critique threatens to render the whole tradition a topic of merely historical interest. Given the depth of the criticism, this essay aims to establish a provisional defense of hermeneutics. After briefly reviewing each critique, it is argued that Badiou and Meillassoux themselves face rather intractable difficulties. These difficulties, then, open the space for a hermeneutic response, which is accomplished largely by drawing on the work of Paul Ricoeur. We close with a suggested program for hermeneutic thought

Ugly American Hermeneutics

This article will appear in a Symposium on comparative legal hermeneutics that includes four articles by American scholars and four articles by Brazilian scholars. I argue that the ugly American hermeneutics exemplified in Justice Scalia\u27s opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller is unfortunate, even if we supplement Justice Scalia\u27s hermeneutical fantasy with the much more careful and balanced philosophical work by Larry Solum, Keith Whittington and other scholars. Nevertheless, the pragmatic work of interpretation by lawyers and judges in the day-to-day world of legal practice shows a plain-faced integrity of which we Americans can be proud

Ugly American Hermeneutics

This article will appear in a Symposium on comparative legal hermeneutics that includes four articles by American scholars and four articles by Brazilian scholars. I argue that the ugly American hermeneutics exemplified in Justice Scalia\u27s opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller is unfortunate, even if we supplement Justice Scalia\u27s hermeneutical fantasy with the much more careful and balanced philosophical work by Larry Solum, Keith Whittington and other scholars. Nevertheless, the pragmatic work of interpretation by lawyers and judges in the day-to-day world of legal practice shows a plain-faced integrity of which we Americans can be proud

Hermeneutics and Nature

This paper contributes to the on-going research into the ways in which the humanities transformed the natural sciences in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries. By investigating the relationship between hermeneutics -- as developed by Herder -- and natural history, it shows how the methods used for the study of literary and artistic works played a crucial role in the emergence of key natural-scientific fields, including geography and ecology

Preaching with all our souls: introducing the SIFT method

Preachers know all too well that preaching is not a simple task. As preachers we carry an important responsibility for proclamation, but also for interpretation. As preachers we engage seriously with reading the scriptures, but also with interpreting the scriptures. As preachers we engage seriously with reading the movement of the Holy Spirit in God’s world, but also with interpreting the Spirit. As preachers we engage seriously with reading the contemporary context in which we live, but also with interpreting that context. As preachers we are involved in the complex task of interpretation, whether we are aware of it or not; and generally it is better to be aware of what we are doing rather than to take too much for granted and to leave too many of our assumptions untested. The study of hermeneutics is the study of interpretation. Increasingly people concerned with studying scripture are taking hermeneutics seriously. The aim of this article, therefore, is to explore one relatively new theory of hermeneutics that is relevant both for studying scripture and for thinking about preaching. The theory is known as the SIFT method of biblical hermeneutics and liturgical preaching

Hermeneutics and Economics

If hermeneutics has obtained remarkable results in the field of arts, philosophy, literature and every other field that operates with symbols, why not bring it in the field of economics as well? Economic hermeneutics starts, first, from the premise of the economic knowledge relativity. Secondly, a correct interpretation requires appropriate techniques for researching causal relations. Thirdly, explanation and prediction give the consistency of interpretation, because the explanation is the one to make a phenomenon easy to understand by revealing the causes of its rise, and the prediction anticipates the result, starting from the original phenomena, the ones that are expected to happen, and the laws governing them. Fourthly, the argumentation is meant to persuade others, in a rational way, that the interpretation is correct. This paper presents a synthesis of the systematic character of the economic hermeneutics. The arguments favoring economic hermeneutics are not intended to suggest that we pursue the completion of the construction of hermeneutics. We are aware of the limitations of the approach. But we would take pleasure in raising future debates and pursue new ideas concerning the present analysis, at least awaking the interest of others expecting this way new developments on the analyzed issue.Economic phenomenon, Reasoning, Argumentation, Interpretation, Economic hermeneutics