Critical Hermeneutics

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C H — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 14:50:56 +0100

Cover

Editors’ Introduction

Beatrice Sofia Vitale, Maria Begoña Collantes Sampedro, Jorge Benito Torres — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 14:58:43 +0100

The meaning of life has been an unavoidable question throughout human thought. The question of this meaning arises directly from the experience of our mortality, from our condition as vulnerable animals. What meaning are we capable of grasping while dwelling in the midst of this finitude? Are we capable, in some way, of finding a fold or gap through which the light of transcendence can reach us? How do we recognise ourselves through the narratives we construct from this tension between finitude and transcendence? Philosophy has not ignored these questions, and clear examples of this are the proposals of Paul Ricoeur and Hans-Georg Gadamer. As key contributors to this dialogue, their thoughts will allow us to understand and weave together perspectives on narrative identity, death and transcendence as guiding threads. These reflections find refuge in anthropology and philosophical hermeneutics. Philosophical anthropology, which is unique, allows us a variety of styles and interpretations. Illuminating hermeneutic brings us closer to a careful reinterpretation of these questions from a new perspective...

[1] This issue stems from the international conference Paul Ricœur and Hans-Georg Gadamer: narrative identity, death, transcendence. The conference took place at the Complutense University of Madrid on May 7, 8, and 9, 2024. It was organized by Beatrice Sofia Vitale, María Begoña Collantes Sampedro, and Jorge Benito Torres.

Editorial

Beatrice Sofia Vitale, Maria Begoña Collantes Sampedro, Jorge Benito Torres — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 15:04:10 +0100

El sentido de la vida ha sido una cuestión ineludible a lo largo del pensamiento humano. La pregunta por este sentido nace directamente de la vivencia de nuestra mortalidad, de nuestra condición de animales vulnerables. ¿Qué sentido somos capaces de aprehender morando en medio de esta finitud? ¿Somos capaces, de algún modo, de encontrar un pliegue o hueco mediante el cual la luz de la trascendencia nos alcance? ¿Cómo nos reconocemos mediando a través de las narrativas que construimos desde esta tensión entre finitud y trascendencia? La filosofía no ha dejado de lado estas preguntas y claro ejemplo de ello son las propuestas de Paul Ricœur y Hans-Georg Gadamer. Como interlocutores principales en este diálogo, sus pensamientos nos permitirán comprender y trenzar miradas sobre la identidad narrativa, muerte y trascendencia como hilos conductores. Estas reflexiones encuentran cobijo en la antropología y hermenéutica filosófica. La antropología filosófica que siendo única nos permite la variedad de estilos e interpretaciones. La hermenéutica iluminadora, nos acerca un plano cuidadoso resignificando dichas cuestiones bajo una mirada novedosa...

Editoriale

Beatrice Sofia Vitale, Maria Begoña Collantes Sampedro, Jorge Benito Torres — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 15:09:42 +0100

Il senso della vita ha rappresentato una domanda inevitabile lungo la storia del pensiero umano. Tale domanda sorge in modo diretto dall’esperienza della nostra mortalità, della nostra condizione di animali vulnerabili. Quale significato siamo capaci di cogliere mentre viviamo in mezzo a questa finitezza? Siamo capaci di scorgere una piega o un’apertura attraverso la quale possa raggiungerci la luce della trascendenza? Come ci riconosciamo mediante le narrazioni a cui diamo forma a partire da questa tensione tra finitezza e trascendenza? La filosofia non ha messo da parte tali questioni e le proposte di Paul Ricœur e Hans-Georg Gadamer ne sono un chiaro esempio. In qualità di interlocutori principali di questo dialogo, le loro riflessioni ci consentiranno di comprendere e proiettare sguardi circa l’identità narrativa, la morte e la trascendenza. Nozioni che opereranno in qualità di fili conduttori. Tali riflessioni incontrano un rifugio nell’antropologia filosofica e nell’ermeneutica. L’antropologia filosofica, in virtù della sua singolarità, ammetterà una varietà di stili e interpretazioni. L’ermeneutica, disciplina dall’approccio illuminante, ci conduce sulla via di una prospettiva attenta e reinterpreta queste questioni a partire da un punto di vista rinnovato.

Search for Meaning, Narrative, and Change

Vinicio Busacchi — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0100

This paper addresses the question of the argumentative consistency of philosophical discourse when confronted with the problem of the meaning of human existence. According to the author, the contemporary traditions that are most appropriate to investigate for this purpose are those of phenomenology, hermeneutics and reflective philosophy.

Death’s Horizon as the Foundation of Eros

Sara Uma Rodríguez Velasco — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 15:43:37 +0100

In the present paper, we will attempt to navigate the experience of grief philosophically, with the aim of developing a vitalism from it. Rather than viewing death as an interruption, denial, or annulment of love, we propose interpreting it as the basis for love to permeate and constitute us in a more intense, profound, and transformative manner. Understanding death as the tragic awareness of our finitude provides the necessary wisdom to live and love differently. With the help of several philosophers, we will explore the tension between love and death as a reciprocal resonance, not an antagonism. We will examine Eros not as a promise of eternity but as an impulse that finds its immanent meaning in the finitude of the other, as in one's own.

The Death of the Other and My Fragility

Carlos Esteban González — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 15:49:24 +0100

Based on Paul Ricoeur’s ideas, we will formulate the question about death. Doing so it will lead us to ask ourselves about the death of the other. Denying the possibility of obtaining certainties about our own death, beyond its inevitability, we will recognize that the question of death is a question for the living. Contemplating it will mean thinking about the others and what we share with them. In our nature, we will find the basis for the need to appeal to others. I need them to face me, to value me, and through it to recognize my own humanity. In the presence of the death of others, that kind of relationship is broken. It abandons me, taking with them the possibility of my recognition. That situation finds another way in the memory we share with others. Bringing all these issues together it will help us to better characterize the question of death from our perspective of fragility.

Evil and Death in Narrative Identity

Pedro José Grande Sánchez — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 15:58:56 +0100

This article explores Paul Ricoeur’s reflection on death and evil within the framework of the phenomenological hermeneutics of the person, situating them in his notion of narrative identity. Drawing on the anthropology of fallibility, it shows how finitude and disproportion constitute the structural condition of the human being, whose life story is marked by vulnerability, suffering, and guilt. Death appears as the ultimate limit of narration, while evil emerges as a fracture that challenges the coherence of the story, one that cannot be justified or closed. Ricoeur’s proposal is a narrative hermeneutics capable of integrating the wound without neutralizing it, of remembering the other as an act of justice, and of resisting oblivion through living memory. Thus, narrative identity is revealed as a fragile yet fruitful space of reconciliation, where finitude becomes the very condition of hope.

To Declare or to Confess?

Blanca Requejo Curto — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 16:20:10 +0100

The purpose of this paper is to revisit a reading of confession and testimony as examined by Paul Ricoeur, in order to enrich the concept of the event as proposed in its variations by the phenomenology of givenness. This is relevant because, when approaching a phenomenon as complex as the theatrical scenic event, we encounter that it points to the limits of the regime of saturated givenness, urging us to attend to the singularity of its mode of appearing. For this part of the study, we will focus on exploring the possibility of an evential dimension of confession, or rather, a confessional dimension of the event. Thus, we shall revisit – through the reflections of Ricoeur and Derrida – a selection of issues proper to the phenomenology of the event: the figure of the witness, its epistemic relation to the event, the latter’s mode of givenness, and its consequences for hermeneutics. Although the event presents itself as an excessive phenomenon, we will chart our path from the reverse side of givenness; that is, beginning with the figures of loss.

A Vision of Suffering from the Hermeneutic Ethics of Paul Ricoeur

Maria Begoña Collantes Sampedro — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 16:34:31 +0100

Abstract

Paul Ricœur's hermeneutic ethics goes beyond simple epistemological critique and language analysis. His "conciliatory" thinking brings together different perspectives in the field of action, combining content from different fields from a practical perspective. The scope of this work is to show how, through Ricœur's approach, an ethics of care can be set up from different spheres of suffering. We will see that we are all agents and sufferers; we act and suffer involving what to do and what to say, but we also appeal to compassion or esteem. From this research we will argue, through suffering, that we are all vulnerable, and facing the suffering, cares updated to our times are needed.

Memory Ties

Beatrice Sofia Vitale — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 16:41:03 +0100

In the following chapter, we will explore the dynamics through which Paul Ricœur attempts to conceive the death of the other as a “loved being” and the role of the “survivors” who witness and experience their death. In this regard, we will reflect on the link our author establishes between otherness and ipseity, which will lead us to examine the divergences and similarities with Levinas’s understanding of otherness and responsibility. We will also demonstrate how it is possible to continue the narrative of the beloved otherness that “is no longer” but nevertheless “has been” in the memory of “those who remain”. Those who take responsibility for ensuring that the biological death of a loved one does not allow the latter to disappear into oblivion, but rather, remains alive through a narrative that finds its place in the memory of the living.

Being from Death

Martín Lorenzo Vargas Aragón — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 17:08:18 +0100

Being from Death. In Praise of Mourning through Reading Paul Ricoeur.

This article interprets a fragment of Paul Ricoeur's posthumous text, Living Up to Death, proposing the Thesis of Animating Mourning. According to this thesis, mourning is simultaneously the process of the survival of the spirit of the dead in the living and the primary form of spiritual vivification of the living. Death is the end of human biology, but the origin of its biography, acting as the transcendental function of the alternative negation of human life.

To justify this thesis, we propose an orbital model of the person inspired by Ortega's tectonics, Zubiri's concept of appropriation, and the notion of mentality described by Héctor Pelegrina. Some notions of neurophenomenology and logic are also used. Some applications of this thesis in anthropological psychiatry are presented.

Key words: anthropological psychiatry, death, Ricoeur, Ortega, Zubiri

Gadamer and the Natural Law Debate

Alex Duque — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0100

This article addresses the tension between classical natural law theory and modern rationalist natural law, based on Gadamer's legal hermeneutics and Massini's critique. It argues that Gadamerian philosophy, by vindicating tradition and practical rationality, offers keys to reinterpreting classical natural law and differentiating it from the rationalist formulations that have predominated in modernity. This reading allows us to recover the historical, prudential, and practical character of natural law, as opposed to its rationalist tendency.

The The Adamian Serpent in Paul Ricoeur’s Thought

Francisco Javier Bernal Acero — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 19:23:38 +0100

In this work, we present some significant points of Paul Ricoeur's thinking on the character of the serpent in the Adamic myth. Ricoeur studies this myth in depth, subjecting it to a process of demythologization that allows for a proper understanding of the symbol, in which the serpent stands out as an ambivalent character. Despite its identification as the "Other", the serpent maintains substantial affinities with man, such as its intelligence and nakedness, but it also maintains notable differences, such as its "cunning for evil" compared to human innocence. This evil is exposed by Ricoeur in successive degrees of exteriorization, leading to the analysis of the traditional identification of the serpent with the figures of the devil-demon-Satan. Throughout the theme, as Ricoeur proposes, there remains a residue of uncertainty, a remnant impossible to demythologize, which ultimately leads us to continue asking ourselves what or who the serpent really is.

Gadamer’s Play as a Criterion for Musical Representation

Mario Blanco-Tascón — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 19:33:19 +0100

This article explores Gadamer's notion of play as a hermeneutic criterion for understanding subjectivity in musical practice. Based on a distinction between three modes of representation of the work—faithful performance, version, and interpretation—it shows how each of them articulates the relationship between fidelity, creativity, and normativity in different ways. Faithful performance privileges the neutrality and transparency of the performer in favour of the objectivity of the work; version emphasises creative transformation as an unfolding of subjectivity; and interpretation, situated at an intermediate threshold, reveals itself as the space in which music plays itself, opening up a field of lived duration. Thus, it is argued that Gadamer's category of play allows us to think of musical interpretation not as mere reproduction or expressive self-affirmation, but as a sound event in which freedom and fidelity are intertwined.

The Exegesis of Aristotle’s Φρόνησις in Heidegger and Gadamer

Gonzalo Martín-Mozo — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 19:40:18 +0100

This paper will analyse the respective focal points of the exegeses of the Aristotelian φρόνησις developed by Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer, highlighting the simultaneous continuity and split that occurs in the reworking of the interpretation of the φρόνησις in Gadamer's hermeneutics. It will be argued that the divergences between the two approaches reflect an essential difference in the conception of understanding: while Heidegger's interpretation of the φρόνησις is marked by the programmatic context of the existential analytic of Dasein, in the Gadamerian framework its social and intersubjective dimension acquires centrality.

Hermeneutics and the Living Logos of Memory

Jorge Benito Torres — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 19:46:18 +0100

The question of memory is one of the most important topics in contemporary hermeneutics. An example of this can be found in the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer, which serves as a space for reflection on the dialectic between memory and forgetting, its relationship with temporality, the historical-narrative quality of human identity, and the way in which reflecting on the hermeneutic value of memory leads us towards a symbolic characterisation of thinking. All of this provides us with an ontology that necessarily becomes intertwined with reflections on language and linguisticity. The interest of the present study is precisely to accompany these reflections, thus rescuing the importance of a hermeneutic memory capable of confronting the forgetfulness and futility so characteristic of postmodern societies.

Restoring Language, Reflecting Through on Word

María Jesús Hermoso Félix — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 20:27:55 +0100

One of Paul Ricoeur’s central concerns is the crisis of language as intrinsically linked to the crisis of modernity. The impoverishment of language serves as a diagnosis of the erosion of the human being — of the individual's ties to community, to nature, to the sacred, and ultimately, to the self. Overcoming this nihilism entails restoring the richness of both language and thought. Ricoeur’s proposal culminates in a mode of thinking grounded in the symbol. In this work, we explore, alongside Ricoeur, the various theoretical dimensions involved in the notion of the symbol.

The Transcendence that Emerges from the Poetic Word

Ariadna Melina González Martínez — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 20:39:33 +0100

The present study aims to explore the mode of being of the poetic word by analyzing the type of transcendence that emerges from it, with the goal of uncovering a defining feature of the ontological constitution of language. To this end, we will briefly point to Heidegger's influence on the question of why language is more expressive in poetic works. The eminent work of art will be an opening of being, where language can be born, with poetic language preceding its everyday and commonly shared condition among mortals. Thus, we must distinguish the saying of the poetic word from that of the word spoken in everyday life, since, following Heidegger, the poem brings the world into Dasein through its authentic saying. This becomes possible through writing as a fundamental possibility of language, a theme developed by Gadamer. When what is written has the hermeneutic structure of a text, the word becomes truly expressive. We will see that in writing – as a characteristic feature of the poetic work of art – its truth can emerge as a unity or play between sound and meaning, a thesis we find in Gadamer’s thought.

Ricœur and Ortega y Gasset

Josu Rodríguez — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 20:49:06 +0100

This paper examines the place of metaphor within philosophical and hermeneutical thought, focusing on the contributions of José Ortega y Gasset and Paul Ricoeur. Through a comparative reading of Las dos grandes metáforas and La métaphore vive, it argues that metaphor should not be regarded as a rhetorical ornament, but rather as a constitutive operation of human understanding. The study traces the shift of metaphor’s location—from the word and the sentence to discourse—in order to highlight its cognitive and ontological tension as a means of opening new modes of access to truth. Finally, it proposes an expansion of metaphor beyond language, by considering exemplarity as a form of lived metaphor that connects hermeneutical reflection with practical life, within the horizon of a renewed philosophical anthropology.

Hermeneutics, Historicism and Surroundings, II

Pier Luigi Lecis — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 21:00:40 +0100

About a century after the cultural events that fostered the development of philosophical hermeneutics, I believe it is useful to return to its original historicist influence. This work draws inspiration from the project of a great Dictionary of Hermeneutics (edited by Gaspare Mura and Vinicio Busacchi), aimed at illustrating its historical profiles, systematic aspects and theoretical issues across the board. In the following pages, I would like to draw attention to the way in which some of the great classics of the twentieth-century hermeneutic tradition took a specific position in dealing with the question of historical knowledge. This was done through original reinterpretations of the philosophical problems of time and the past with respect to the legacy of the historicist tradition and, in particular, with respect to its outcomes in German culture between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I will not propose a historical reconstruction, but rather will attempt to explore the theoretical positions, problems and the attempts made at answers through the conceptual and argumentative analysis of some canonical texts. Most space is devoted to Martin Heidegger, as the protagonist of the ontological shift in the theory of understanding that largely determined the subsequent developments of hermeneutics. Given their depth and the particularly rich and complex web of theoretical paths that run through Sein und Zeit, it seemed necessary to select a specific reading itinerary for the work, re-examining the sections that can be linked to the question of history. In order to give adequate prominence to the plurality of philosophical voices and sensibilities involved, I have divided the work into two parts. In the first, I presented some theoretical issues of German historicism, in order to highlight the significance of the ontological shift in Heidegger, which is then analysed in detail. The second part examines the interesting and diverse versions of the hermeneutic paradigm in Gadamer and Ricoeur.

Humanological Motives for “Philosophy of Human Safety and Security Versus Ontological Constructivism”

Milenko Bodin — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 21:12:36 +0100

The paper starts from the “new poverty of philosophy” and the dominance of ontological (critical) constructivism in security studies, which reduces thinking to mere construction and erases the difference between philosophy and ideology. In contrast, the author develops a humanologically motivated philosophy of security as an attempt to restore the security of thought and regain an authentic understanding of freedom of thought beyond a purely negative concept of freedom. Through a hermeneutical reading of Hobbes’s model of the state of nature and legitimation, the thesis is derived that security is a fundamental, existential interest of the human being, from which both the social state and the concept of a security entity arise. On that basis an entological theory of security is formulated, in which identity, integrity, and sovereignty are the key criteria for the fulfillment of the security interest and the basis for the development of security culture and strategic security culture. In a broader context, the humanological approach allows linking the philosophy of human security with democracy as a communicative community that avoids both the universalist totalitarianism of ideologies and the technocratic governance of people. The philosophy of security thus proves to be an applied philosophy that establishes a feedback loop between theoretical and practical knowledge and offers an integral model for the study of contemporary security phenomena.

Humanological Critique of the Misuse of Philosophical Theories in the Social Sciences

Dušan Smiljanić — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 21:17:52 +0100

In this paper is addressed the misuse of philosophical concepts and theories within the social sciences, using the case of securitization theory in the field of security studies as a focal point. Drawing upon logical-epistemological and ontological primacy of philosophy over science, and the necessity of philosophical grounding of social sciences, we aim to outline a philosophically adequate approach to the phenomenon of security. This serves as a contribution to the foundational development of security sciences. The theoretical framework for both the critique of securitization theory and the articulation of a more adequate philosophical approach to security is provided by Milenko Bodin’s humanological paradigm of philosophy and social sciences and entological theory of human safety and security.

The Relation Between Freedom and Security in the Entological Theory of Human Safety and Security

Uroš Mihajlović — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 21:41:12 +0100

This paper examines the ontological foundations of human security through the lens of the philosophical relation between freedom and security. The analysis is theoretically and methodologically grounded in an ontological-phenomenological approach, which allows security to be understood not as an external condition but as an internal, constitutive principle of human existence. Such an approach enables a deeper comprehension of the way in which freedom and security mutually found and condition one another. The structure of the paper includes an examination of the concept of the state of nature and its implications for the relation between freedom and security; a critical reconsideration of the traditional division of freedom; and an articulation of security as an ontological foundation of human existence. In its concluding section, the paper offers a synthetic, holistic perspective on the relation between freedom and security. The central conclusion is that security is not a limitation of freedom but the condition of its actual realization.

Books Received (2025)

C H — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 21:30:13 +0100

Books received in 2025

C H — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 21:33:34 +0100

Contents