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165 From Hermeneutics to Praxis but only to those gifted individuals who had been properly educated. And it cannot be denied that many of those who have been drawn to this tradition in the modern age, especially insofar as they have opposed what they take to be the excesses and abstractness of the Enlightenment conception of reason, have not only been critical of political reform and revolution but have been attracted to the elitist quality of phronesis. But Gadamer softens this elitist aura by blending his discussion of phronesis with his analysis of a type of dialogue and conversation that presupposes mutual respect, recognition, and understanding. When all of this is integrated with the Hegelian "truth"-"the principle that all are free never again can be shaken"then the radicalization of phronesis and praxis becomes manifest. There is an implicit telos here, not in the sense of what will work itself out in the course of history, but rather in the sense of what ought to be concretely realized. PHILOSOPHIC HERMENEUTICS AND THE CARTESIAN ANXIETY Earlier I have suggested that if we are to exorcise the Cartesian Anxiety by moving beyond objectivism and relativism, then we need to find an alternative way of thinking and of understanding our beingin -the-world. We are now in a position to see that the whole of Gadamer's project-and all of the bypaths that he has followed-can be interpreted as being addressed to this issue. For the direction of his thinking that is initially concerned with the analysis of works of art, texts, and tradition has universalistic consequences. From the introduction of the concept of play, with its intrinsic to-and-fro movement and buoyancy, to his analysis of dialogue and conversation where "the law of the subject matter [die SacheJ is at issue in the dialogue and elicits statement and counterstatement, and in the end plays them into each other/' all of the themes in Gadamer's philosophic hermeneutics contribute to the movement beyond objectivism and relativism. Gadamer is not simply attempting to reveal what happens when we "understand" in some limited and parochial sense of understanding. If we are truly dialogical beings-always in conversation, always in the process of understanding-then the dynamics of the play of understanding underlie and pervade all human activities. Gadamer deplores the "aesthetic consciousness" (which might just as well be called "subjectivism/' or what MacIntyre calls "emotivism" and which leads to relativism) that has become preva- 166 Beyond Objectivism and Relativism lent in the modern period. He finds the same deficiencies and inadequacies in that form of IIhistorical consciousness" which thinks of itself as standing over and against historicailiobjects." His positive analysis of prejudgments, of the way in which they both enable us to understand and are also risked and tested in all genuine encounters and experience, also helps to contribute to the movement beyond objectivism and relativism. We find variations on the same theme in Gadamer's analysis of praxis and phronesis. In a variety of subtle ways Gadamer shows us what is wrong with that way of thinking that dichotomizes the world into 1I0bjects" which exist an sich and IIsubjects" that are detached from and stand over against them. We do not comprehend what the things themselves IIsay" unless we realize that their meaning transcends them and comes into being through the happening or event of understanding. And we do not understand ourselves as IIsubjectsli unless we understand how we are always being shaped by effective-history and tradition. We are always in medias res: there are no absolute beginnings or endings. Experience is always anticipatory and open. liThe truth of experience always contains an orientation towards new experience.... The dialectic of experience has its own fulfillment not in definitive knowledge, but in that openness to experience that is encouraged by experience itself" (TM, p. 319; WM, p. 337). Overcoming the Cartesian Anxiety is learning to live without the idea of the lIinfinite intellect," finality, and absolute knowledge. The approach that pervades so much of Gadamer's thinking and helps to give it unified perspective, his practical -moral orientation, is directed toward reminding us, and calling us back to, an understanding of what it means to be finite historical beings who are always lion the way" and who must assume personal responsibility for our decisions and choices. While Gadamer's sustained and multifaceted critique of objectivism is apparent, it may seem more questionable whether he escapes from the clutches of relativism...

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