Heuristic capabilities of modern hermeneutics in justifying social cognition and moral theory

This article deals with the question of what opportunities the modern hermeneutical philosophy gives for theming the nature of social cognition. The article deals with the question of what comes in place of the "model subject'' of the Cartesian type in modern philosophy, moreover, the question of how to solve the problem of the conditions of social cognition. It is revealed that modern hermeneutical philosophy allows going beyond the traditional conceptual framework in understanding the nature of social cognition and refer to it as a form of social practice that is associated with the translation and rationalization of meanings that constitute the essence of social matter. Within contemporary hermeneutic philosophy there is a transition from the "model of the subject'' of the Cartesian type to the "medial model'' of the subject. In modern communicative philosophy "subjectivity" and "consciousness" are not primary, subjectivity is de-transcendentalized. It is no longer interpreted as a necessary condition of being and knowing. Thinking is essentially connected with the social and cultural context it occurs in. In epistemological terms, this means that any theoretical activity is always marked by the situation in which it is performed. De-transcendentalization of subjectivity is accompanied by ontologization of the temporal dimension and the world of everyday practices. Different subjectless instances (tradition, life world, communicative community) come instead of the transcendental cogito. They form the medial dimension of our theoretical and practical experience. The specificity of these instances is that they, on the one hand, found our cognitive activity and shape our consciousness, but, on the other hand, they are also subject to change in the process of our historical practice. Language and communication are given the status of transcendental conditions, conditions necessary for cognition. This transcendental status has a pragmatic dimension, the language in its real communicative use. Language is the transcendental condition of the possibility of obtaining universally valid knowledge. Communication reveals structures that generate intersubjective significance of knowledge. Formal pragmatics shows that communication inherits claims that provide the rational basis of consensus. Transcendental pragmatics introduces the concept of "transcendental language game". Thus, it can be argued that the "communicative turn'' shifts the transcendental dimension. The instance providing universal validity of knowledge is language and communication. Significance of contemporary hermeneutics for methodology of social cognition is that it allows going beyond the traditional conceptual framework in understanding the nature of social cognition and presenting social cognition as a form of social practice that is associated with the translation and rationalization of meanings that constitute the essence of social matter.

Keywords

Authors

References