The philosophical dialogue : a poetics and a hermeneutics The philosophical dialogue : a poetics and a hermeneutics

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. No overall history of the philosophical dialogue has appeared since Rudolf Hirzel's two-volume study was published in 1895. In The Philosophical A Poetics and a Hermeneutics , Vittorio Hsle covers the development of the genre from its beginning with Plato to the late twentieth-century work of Iris Murdoch and Paul Feyerabend. Hsle 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, Hsle'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," Hsle 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 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. Cover Half title Title page Copyright Dedication Contents Abbreviations Preface Introduction 1. The Place of Philosophical Dialogue among the Literary Forms of Philosophy 2. Conversation and Dialogue 3. On the Relationship between Form and Content in the Philosophical Dialogue Part I: The Production of Philosophical Dialogue 4. The Stages of the Philosophical Dialogue’s Historical Development 5. Social Presuppositions and Obstacles 6. Individual Presuppositions and Obstacles 7. The Problem of Authorial Intention Part II: The Universe of the Philosophical Dialogue 8. Individual Dialogues and Groups of Dialogues 9. Introductory Taxonomy 10. The Modal and Ontological Status of the Literary Universe—Personification and the Problem of Realism—Dream and Dialogue 11. The Space of Conversation 12. The Time of Conversation 13. The Number of Persons in the Conversation 14. The Initial Conditions of Conversation 15. The Goal of Conversation 16. The Ethics of Conversation 17. The Logic of Conversation 18. The Aesthetics of the Dialogue Part III: The Reception of the Philosophical Dialogue 19. Conversation between Different Dialogic Universes 20. Conversation between Author and Reader Bibliography Index "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."-- From the back cover