Dear students, colleagues!
Hopefully you control the moodle regularly (https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=9855). Since the quarantine started, I have inserted in there eight powerpoint presentations. They may serve you as a supporting means and provide a better orientation while reading the original parts on given issues which Gadamer follows in Truth and Method. Anyway, this cannot replace the proper reading of crucial parts on which the theory of hermeneutic experience is based. So, continue devoting yourself to reading. So far, I have selected the most significant parts drawn from Truth and Method from which the understanding of the idea of modern hermeneutics can be best understood.
I am going to prepare three or four more presentations that will deal with the concept of language in Gadamerian hermeneutics, the concept of art and aesthetics and the concept of “mimesis”. At last the course will be limited to Gadamerian hermeneutics. In my view, it is better to expose one theory deeply than the two superficially. Yet, this should not prevent you from writing your final essay on hermeneutic topics drawn from other hermeneutic-oriented philosophers (Ricoeur, Habermas, and so on). Up to now, I have received from your part only four emails informing me about the topic of your final essay. Each of you should write to me what subject matter is going to pursue in his/her essay. If you are not decided yet, do not hesitate to contact me and we can discuss the topic together, find a literature, and the like. Do not forget that the final work must be written in English.
Since hermeneutics deals with all fundamental philosophical questions, I think that most of you find the topic easily. As I recommended you from the start of the semester, the best is to find the topic somehow linked to your theoretical interests. The worst thing to do is to focus on the subject “you must write” and not on the one “you want to write”. Choose carefully.
Best!
Felix Borecký