Philosophy 260ãHermeneutics: Meaning and Interpretation

Spring, 2005

T, Th 10:30-12:00, Building 000

Jay L. Garfield, Dewey House, Front Parlor

Office Hours: T, Th 9:00-10:30 or by appt

Phone: 585-3649

jgarfield@smith.edu

Required Texts:

At GrÈcourt Bookstore:

Gadamer, Truth and Method

Lopez. Elaborations of Emptiness

Red Pine, The Heart Sutra

Gregory, Tsung-mi and the Sinifcation of Budhism

Red Pine, Taoteching

Course reader

There will also be a reserve list of suggested readings in the library.

This course considers philosophical problems arising from the practices associated with

reading, interpreting, translating and understanding significant texts and the traditions in

which they are embedded. We will begin by examining some influential Western approaches

to hermeneutic theory, and then turn to considering approaches to hermeneutics deriving from

Indian and Chinese traditions. We will be especially concerned to ask what problems

concerning interpretation arise when we translate texts and read texts whose cultural origins our

distant from our own.

All students are expected to attend class regularly, to participate in class discussion, to complete

all assigned reading prior to the class session in which it is to be discussed, and to come to class

prepared with questions raised by the reading. Students will be divided into two groups in the

second half of the semester. Groups will write short papers on alternate weeks. In the week in

which a group is not writing, members of that group are required to comment on the papers written

by the members of the other group on blackboard prior to class. All students are required to monitor

and to participate in the blackboard discussion. All students will complete three short discussion

papers of 2-3 pp to be e-mailed as rtf attachments to all members of the class at least 48 hrs before

the class in which they are to be discussed. Blackboard discussion for a will be open for each

set of papers and the discussion for and should be active through the evening before the relevant

class.

Each student will also write one midterm paper of 8-12 pp. Topics for tehse papers should be

chosen in consultation with me, and I welcome any topic so long as it is directly concerned with

the texts we read in the course. I welcome rough drafts of the final papers, which can be

handed to me at any time or e-mailed. I guarantee that I will return all rough drafts or outlines

with comments within two days after I receive them. Each student will also lead one class

discussion for approximately half a class session. All work is to be handed in on time unless

an extension is arranged prior to the due date. I cannot guarantee either prompt return or

feedback on work handed in late.

Grades will be determined as follows:

Short Papers: 30% (10% each)

Blackboard comments on papers and discussion contribution 20%

Midterm paper: 25%

Seminar leading 10%

Class Participation: 15%

             Schedule of Readings and Written Work:

Date Topic Text Written Work

Introductory

1/25 Introductory _________________

1/27 The Heideggerian Background

Heidegger, ≥Phenomenology and Fundamental

Ontology: The Disclosure of Meaning,≤

Haugeland, ≥Understanding Natural Language≤

Part I. The European tradition

2/1 Overview

Connolly and Keutner ≥Interpretation, Decidability

and Meaning≤

Gadamer, ≥On the Circle of Understanding≤

2/3 Gadamer on effective history and the hermeneutical circle

Gadamer, ≥The Historicity of Understanding≤

Gadamer, ≥The Universality of the Hermeneutical

Reflection≤

Garfield, ≥Philosophy, Religion and the Hermeneutic

Imperative≤

2/8 Truth and Method

Truth and Method II

2/10 Truth and Method

Truth and Method III

2/15 Quine Word and Object, c II

≥Two Dogmas of Empiricism≤

2/17 Davidson Davidson, ≥Radical Interpretation≤

Davidson, ≥On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme≤

Quine, ≥On the Very Idea of a Third Dogma≤

Part II. Cross-Cultural Hermeneutics and Translation

2/22 The enterprise of crossing cultures I

Matilal, ≥Indian Philosophy: Is there a Problem Today?≤

Matilal, ≥On the Concept of Philosophy in India≤

Matilal, ≥On Dogmas of Orientalism≤

2/24 The enterprise of crossing cultures II

Mohanty, ≥On Interpreting Indian PhilosophyãSome

Problems and Concerns≤

Mohanty, ≥Philosophy of History and its Presuppositions≤

Mohanty, ≥Are Indian and Western Philosophy Radically

Different?≤

3/1 Translation I

Bar-On, ≥Indeterminacy of Translation: Theory and

Practice≤

Garfield, Temporality and Alterity: Dimensions of

Hermeneutic Difference≤

Garfield, ≥Translation and Transmission and

Transformation≤

3/3 Translation II

GomÈz, ≥Three Recent Translations of Bodhicaryavatara≤

Part III. Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Hermeneutics

3/8 Principles CabezÛn, Buddhism and Language Introduction, Section I

3/10 CabezÛn, Buddhism and Language Introduction, Section II

Midterm paper due

3/22 Heart Sutra Lopez, Elaborations of Emptiness, Introduction, 1-5 Group A paper I

3/24 Lopez, Elaborations of Emptiness, Introduction, 6-10

3/29 Red Pine, The Heart Sutra Group B paper I

3/31 Red Pine, The Heart Sutra

4/5 Tibetan ideas Thurman, ≥Vajra Hermeneutics≤ Group A paper II

4/7 Kapstein, ≥Miphamπs Theory of Interpretation≤

Part IV. Chinese Hermeneutics

4/12 Buddhist stuff Gregory, Tsung-mi & the Sinification of Buddhism c 1-3

Group B paper II

4/14 Gregory, Tsung-mi & the Sinification of Buddhism c 4-6

4/19 Gregory, Tsung-mi & the Sinification of Buddhism c 10-11 Group A paper III

4/21 Taoism Red Pine, Taoteching, Ivanhoe, Daodeching1-20

4/26 Red Pine, Taoteching, Ivanhoe, Daodeching 21-63

Group B paper III

4/28 Red Pine, Taoteching, Ivanhoe, Daodeching 63-81

Reserve Reading List