• DOI:10.25159/2413-3086/3813
• Corpus ID: 55785659

PRACTICAL WISDOM (PHRONĒSIS) AND HERMENEUTICAL POLITICS

@inproceedings{Duvenage2018PRACTICALW,
  title={PRACTICAL WISDOM (PHRONĒSIS) AND HERMENEUTICAL POLITICS},
  author={Pieter Duvenage},
  year={2018}
}

• P. Duvenage
• Published 29 January 2018
• Philosophy

This essay focuses on the implications of Aristotle’s concept of practical wisdom ( phronēsis ) for ethical and political life in contemporary societies – especially pluralist and divided societies. The argument starts with a brief reconstruction of this well-known Aristotelian concept (section 1) and then moves to its critical appropriation by two prominent contemporary thinkers. In section 2 it is argued that Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics is deeply influenced by the concept of practical wisdom ( phronēsis ), and that this influence has implications for the way he interprets contemporary politics – especially a scientifically-steered politics that follows the recipe of a scientific method rather than to seek a more practically wise concept of truth. Gadamer’s work provides a fitting departure point for the unique political theory of Hannah Arendt (section 3) – especially the distinction she makes between an empirical and hermeneutical politics. It is additionally argued that this latter concept of Arendt, also being influenced by the Aristotelian tradition of phronēsis , is taken further in her study of truth and politics and its implications for concepts such as freedom, action, history, and language.