Roberge (2011) - What is critical hermeneutics?

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http://the.sagepub.com/ Thesis Eleven http://the.sagepub.com/content/106/1/5 The online version of this article can be found at: DOI: 10.1177/0725513611411682 2011 106: 5 Thesis Eleven Jonathan Roberge What is critical hermeneutics? Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com can be found at: Thesis Eleven Additional services and information for http://the.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Email Alerts: http://the.sagepub.com/subscriptions Subscriptions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Permissions: http://the.sagepub.com/content/106/1/5.refs.html Citations: What is This? - Aug 4, 2011 Version of Record >> by guest on October 8, 2014 the.sagepub.com Downloaded from by guest on October 8, 2014 the.sagepub.com Downloaded from

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This article explores the promises of critical hermeneutics as an innovative method and philosophywithinthe human sciences. It is argued that its success depends on its ability to articulate a theory of meaning with one of action and experience as well as its capacity to renew our understanding of the problem of ideology. First, critical hermeneutics must explain how cultural messages ‘show and hide’; that is, how the ambiguity of meaning always allows for a group to represent itself while opening the door for distortion and domination.Second, critical hermeneutics ought to show how action can be best understood as opposing performances driven by ideological-moral views. Through an analysis of social movements, for instance, it is shown that any attempt to do justice could also and easilycreate exclusion. Third, critical hermeneutics has to clarify how tension and dualism within meaning and action are not to be dissociated from the self-interpretation of concrete individuals. A theory of experience is thus required in order to explain why the autonomy of the subject is finally at stake with regard to the problem of ideology.

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  • http://the.sagepub.com/Thesis Eleven

    http://the.sagepub.com/content/106/1/5The online version of this article can be found at:

    DOI: 10.1177/0725513611411682 2011 106: 5Thesis Eleven

    Jonathan RobergeWhat is critical hermeneutics?

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  • Articles

    What is criticalhermeneutics?

    Jonathan RobergeUniversite du Quebec a` Montreal, Canada

    AbstractThis article explores the promises of critical hermeneutics as an innovative method andphilosophy within the human sciences. It is argued that its success depends on its ability toarticulate a theory of meaning with one of action and experience as well as its capacity torenew our understanding of the problem of ideology. First, critical hermeneutics mustexplain how cultural messages show and hide; that is, how the ambiguity of meaning alwaysallows for a group to represent itself while opening the door for distortion and domination.Second, critical hermeneutics ought to show how action can be best understood asopposing performances driven by ideological-moral views. Through an analysis of socialmovements, for instance, it is shown that any attempt to do justice could also and easilycreate exclusion. Third, critical hermeneutics has to clarify how tension and dualism withinmeaning and action are not to be dissociated from the self-interpretation of concreteindividuals. A theory of experience is thus required in order to explain why the autonomyof the subject is finally at stake with regard to the problem of ideology.

    Keywordsaction, critical theory, experience, hermeneutics, ideology, meaning, Paul Ricur

    Introduction

    There are no other paths, in effect, for carrying out our interest in emancipation than by

    incarnating it within cultural acquisitions. (Paul Ricur)

    Some ideas and theories become so popular that nobody knows exactly what they

    mean anymore. Critical hermeneutics is on the verge of becoming one of these.

    Corresponding author:

    Jonathan Roberge, Chaire de Recherche du Canada en Mondialisation, Citoyennete et Democratie, UQAM,

    C.P. 8888, succursale Centre-Ville, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3P8, Canada

    Email: [email protected]

    Thesis Eleven106(1) 522 The Author(s) 2011Reprints and permissions:sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.navDOI: 10.1177/0725513611411682the.sagepub.com

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  • Although many use it in art history, pedagogy, literary studies, methodology, etc.

    (see, e.g., Zuidervaart 2003; Thouard 2002; Palermo 1975; Kinsella 2006), it

    remains difficult to find analytical or even somewhat systematic definitions of the

    concept itself. In other words, few have explored the question of what critical

    hermeneutics fundamentally is.1 With more specific regards to the human sciences,

    I suggest here that such a definition is intrinsically linked, and always refers to the

    simultaneously old and new question of ideology. This question lies at the source of

    the sociological discipline, its history inseparable from the emergence of modernity,

    while simultaneously revealing a malaise that is present, current, and profound.

    Ideology continues to be a problematic concept, mostly due to its semantic

    complexity and polemic nature.2 Nevertheless, there is no denying the continued

    usefulness of this concept, the fact that it remains among the most fundamental

    terms in social theory. Wanting to understand ideology is thus having the intuition

    that it condenses within itself all the great paradoxes of culture, its diverse tensions,

    and the very possibility of critical hermeneutics on a dual epistemological and

    ontological front.

    Drawing inspiration from the work of Paul Ricur yet also looking beyond it a

    non-dogmatic posture that should encourage a dialogue with works as diverse as

    those of Jeffrey C. Alexander, Clifford Geertz, Axel Honneth or Michael Walzer, for

    example the present article wants to demonstrate that critical hermeneutics is in

    fact the conjunction and the articulation of three theories: a theory of meaning, a

    theory of action, and a theory of experience. These three theories are deeply inter-

    related, and critical hermeneutics is understandable only insofar as this fine dialectic

    of meaning, action, and experience is considered. In Section I, I shall analyze what is

    critical hermeneutics theory of meaning from its principal source, namely the

    Habermas-Gadamer debate. Surprisingly, this debate does not even come close to

    showing the complementary character of critical theory and hermeneutics, a comple-

    mentary pair that is particularly necessary when applied to the specific problem of

    ideology. A position of this kind can be found in Ricur, among others, for whom

    ideology is characterized by the triple process of interpretation, legitimization, and

    dissimulation.

    In Section II, I shall explain why such theory of meaning leads to a practical

    philosophy and a theory of action by largely recalling the renewed concept of perfor-

    mance. The interest of this shift lies in the fact that it brings down the center of gravity,

    the locus of ideology towards social movements and counter-movements, their symbolic

    struggles, and conflicts of interpretations. The challenge of all this also changes since it

    refers to the perpetual reorganization of the moral boundaries of good and evil, which are

    inseparable from diverse struggles for recognition.

    In Section III, I shall argue that action cannot be dissociated from its effects on the

    concerned audiences, from its reception by individuals, thereby leading to critical

    hermeneutics as a theory of experience focused on the self-understanding and the auton-

    omy of the subject, with all the possibilities and the difficulties these notions entail.

    Thus, knowing the leeway of intellectuals in what can be called the Mannheim paradox

    will become a final question rather than a primary one. In the end, the solution proposed

    by critical hermeneutics will show its still ambiguous character.

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  • I. Critical hermeneutics as a theory of meaning

    The polemics between the universal hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer and the

    critical theory of Jurgen Habermas during the 1960s and 1970s is known well enough

    to be considered a landmark in contemporary philosophy of human sciences (see

    Habermas 1988 [1970]; Apel 1971). Space constraints oblige us here to proceed directly

    to the heart of the controversy. Building on Heideggerian thought, Gadamer developed

    an ontology of understanding by insisting on human finiteness and the immersion of

    human beings in the historic-cultural world. All understanding proceeds from what

    precedes it this is the Vorstruktur des Verstehens, its prestructure thereby rehabilitat-

    ing three contested concepts, namely tradition, authority, and prejudice (see Gadamer

    1975 [1960]: 151341). These are positive in that they enable understanding, which is

    also true about a historical science that cannot free itself totally from its historical

    condition. Gadamerian hermeneutics is thus a meta-critique, that is to say a critique of

    critique itself, of the Enlightenment, of positivism, etc.

    Yet this is precisely the reason for Habermas criticism. For him, Gadamer had

    absolutized hermeneutical understanding so that his faith in tradition, for example,

    became mostly a form of blindness. How could such a tradition see itself from the

    interior, or see what is defective within itself? What is missing is the very possibility of

    coercion, of systematically contorted communication, and of ideology. Universal

    hermeneutics misses all this in refusing, on the one hand, to concede whatsoever to

    explanatory methods namely, disciplines like the critical social sciences and psycho-

    analysis for Habermas and, on the other hand, by not having any emancipative project

    (see mostly Habermas 1972 [1968]). Gadamer nevertheless defends his position. He

    attacks Habermas by claiming that his ideas lead to imagining an Archimedean point for

    both knowledge and critique that cannot rightfully exist. Once more, nothing lies outside

    ones own historical position within a long tradition, neither the method nor the interest

    for emancipation, not even reflection itself, except, of course, to move within a

    rationalist and idealist illusion that overestimated its own power.

    The consequences that can be drawn from this debate are certainly more important

    than its multiple details. First of all, one must admit that, on many occasions, it is a

    poorly framed debate. Gadamer, for example, never states that the relationship to

    authority is based on submission, stating rather that it is built on recognition. In

    Habermas case, it is also false to say that he demands full transparency regarding the

    diverse conditionings affecting people in society. This misunderstanding is thus strongly

    linked to the offensive strategy of each protagonist (see Nuyen 1995: 423ff.).

    Furthermore, it is useful to note that the debate does not help to clarify the com-

    plementarities of both perspectives. Hermeneutics and critical theory observe the world

    from two different points of view, but these can nevertheless interpenetrate each other

    to form multiple points of convergence (see Bubner 1975: 338ff.; Hekman 1986: 138ff.;

    Mendelson 1979; Nuyen 1995; Ricur 1973a, 1981). A first relevant point is that all

    comprehension of the tradition introduces a critical distance at the same moment that all

    critique is made about and is supported by a reinterpretation of cultural history.3 But

    there is more. I want to argue that this convergence must not be found in something

    exterior to the two approaches such as their common attack on positivism, among other

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  • examples but in a problem that is intrinsic to both. It is from the interior, that is to say

    the way in which they continually come up against the same problem, that hermeneutics

    and critical theory intersect. And this problem is again and always that of the ideological

    constitution of reality.

    Ricur could serve as a guide in the exploration of this problem, as he formulates

    interesting propositions in order to overcome some of the difficulties inherent to the

    Habermas-Gadamer debate. In his many essays and lectures on ideology, he never fails

    to discern the cultural and hermeneutical impact of the phenomenon which could be

    interpreted as situating him within a Geertzian paradigm or, at least, in dialogue with

    Geertzs renowned article on Ideology as a Cultural System (1973; see also Ricur

    1977: 3137; 1986: 10, 254ff.; 1991 [1986]: 20). This first level involves arriving at the

    necessity for a social group to give itself an image of itself, to represent and to realize

    itself, in the theatrical sense of the word (Ricur 1981: 225). In other words, this implies

    a function of integration inherent to ideology which is at once impassable and positive,

    and which must allow the group to discover itself through the mediation of a social

    imaginary.4

    Why must this function be impassable and positive? Three characteristics can serve to

    clarify this. First, ideology does not have a meaning that could be partial or secondary,

    but it is a meaning, it is meaning-full or, as Ricur says, it provides a surplus of

    meaning. Secondly, ideology has always been in the realm of interpretation. What is

    interpreted is mainly the correlation between the group and its own foundation, as well as

    the boundaries of said group, be they temporal or spatial. Finally, the third characteristic

    is that ideology can be understood as a text (see Ricur 1971, 1981: 14564; for

    commentaries see Thompson 1984a; Roberge 2008: 16380). This latter characteristic is

    the most important and the most complex one since it introduces a considerable dose of

    cultural autonomy. On the one hand, it means that ideology functions, to speak in the

    manner of de Saussure, as a system of signs (see de Saussure 1986 [1922]), a semiotic

    network in which elements position themselves in opposition to others. On the other

    hand, it must be understood that ideology as a text has a reference; that is to say it speaks

    of something other than itself and at a distance from itself. This is not, prime facie,

    obvious: The thing of the text this is the object of hermeneutics. Now the thing of

    the text is the world it unfolds before itself (Ricur 1991: 95, my translation). For

    Ricur, this world is not the real world, but one that recreates it a second time, a third

    time, a fourth time, etc.

    The implications of this meaning-interpretation-text triptych are certainly numerous.

    Among other things, one would need to show that it encourages the thought of a delay, or

    a displacement at the very heart of the history and culture of a group. Ideology, for this

    group, signs an indirect relationship to its own being (Ricur 1991 [1986]: 182,

    emphasis added) in order for these delays and displacements to, at least, always remain

    possible. Already at this level of a cultural reading of ideology, ambiguity is thus both

    constitutive and fundamental. It touches what Ricur calls the semantic knot of all

    hermeneutics, the constant reference to an architecture of meaning . . . whose rolein every instance, although in a different manner, is to show while concealing (1974

    [1969]: 12, emphasis added).5 Moreover, this impassable relationship between clarity

    and obscurity, between unveiling and disguise, is no stranger to the fact that ideology

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  • refers to a perpetual conflict of interpretations. There is not one but many ideologies in

    competition Ricur even talks about a battlefield of ideologies. Fundamentally, the

    plurality of interpretations, or even their conflict, does not constitute a flaw, a vice, but a

    privilege of comprehension as such at the heart of interpretation (Ricur 1991: 19, my

    translation). What is more problematic, however, is that these diverse interpretations,

    these various points of view on morality, etc., will soon evict all traces of neutrality. This

    discussion on ideology thus finds itself on the threshold of a critical reading or rereading.

    It is mainly through the functions of legitimization of authority and of pathological

    dissimulation-distortion that the critical theory of ideology provided by Ricur is

    uncovered.6 No matter what, ideology always revolves around force and constraint.

    What ideology interprets and justifies is, above all, the relation to the system of

    authority (Ricur 1981: 228). Rulers are always invested in the defense of their right

    to rule, in the promotion of their power, in their own magnificence, and therefore also

    in their pretenses and claims of legitimacy. Certainly, all these things never fail to be

    problematic:

    Everything then turns on the nature of the knot the nexus that binds the legitimacy claims

    raised by the governors to the belief in that authority on the part of the governed. The

    paradox of authority resides in this knot. Ideology, we may presume, arises precisely in the

    breach between the request of legitimacy emanating from a system of authority and our

    response in terms of belief. (Ricur 2004 [2000]: 83)

    One would note the Weberian and Marxian dual nature of this position. It is Weberian

    through the idea, for example, of a supplement (see mostly Ricur 1995: 164ff.) by

    which belief is always positive for power, thus facilitating its action by being less costly

    than violence. And yet it is also Marxian, namely through the idea of surplus value (see,

    e.g., Ricur 1981: 228ff.; 1986: 14). However, since it is impossible to talk about

    ideology without talking about Marx, this somehow forces the negotiation of aporias that

    his thoughts did not fail to instigate and, even beforehand, links to the symbolism of the

    camera obscura, or the inverted image of reality. On the one hand, it must be false to say

    that in reversing the reverse one can find an unaltered virgin reality. This would mean

    forgetting the primary function of the ideological phenomenon which asserts that the

    imaginary [is] coextensive to the very process of praxis (Ricur 1991 [1986]: 317), and

    this Ricur cannot resolve to do. On the other hand, it is necessary to note that ideo-

    logical dissimulation-distortion is an undeniable reality. Propaganda and trickery are

    effective tools for domination and there are too many potent historical examples to state

    the contrary: Nazism, Stalinism, etc. Distortion presents itself as the always possible and

    thus constitutive degeneration of ideology, that is to say the area where it can begin to

    manifest worrying signs of inhumanity.

    To summarize, then, it is important to acknowledge the subtlety of Ricurs solution

    to the problem of ideology; how, in other words, this solution shows a tension that can

    travel in two directions. If, in fact, the illusion is not the most fundamental phenomenon,

    but a corruption of the legitimating process [and the] integrative function of ideology, it

    is also important to state, at the same time, the opposite thesis according to which every

    idealization necessarily transforms itself into distortion, dissimulation, and lies (Ricur

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  • 1991 [1986]: 318). The diverse functions and parts of the problem signify each other,

    interpenetrate each other here, much like the complex rapports between hermeneutics

    and critical theory. It is all of this that must work together in a fine dialectic that

    repeatedly puts its fragile balance to the test. The example of Ricurs dialectic does not

    provide a synthesis, nor a super system, for all the reasons mentioned above, but it

    certainly allows us to move beyond the Habermas-Gadamer debate or, for that matter,

    beyond some solely culturalist perspectives such as Geertzs.7 It is this dialectic, and

    what it means for the development of critical hermeneutics, that should therefore begin

    to be clearer. What is certainly less clear, however, is how such a theoretical architecture

    which insists on the primacy of meaning could also reveal its practical or sociological

    relevance. This will be shown as the discussion moves from a theory of meaning to a

    theory of action.

    II. Critical hermeneutics as a theory of action

    From a sociological point of view, the study of ideology would be of little interest

    without the possibility of seeing the numerous ways by which its meaning is carried out

    concretely. Admittedly, meaning envelops and goes beyond action, but action develops

    and fulfills signification. Therein lies a dual movement that can be easily associated with

    something like a healthy circle or, once more, with a fine dialectic. Ricur calls this

    action symbolically mediated (see, e.g., 1973b: 6; 1977: 31; 1991: 20) whereas others,

    namely Burke (1957 [1941]), refer to it as symbolic action. Basically, these two

    concepts can be found within the same theoretical cluster, a single larger network that

    also includes Geertz and ends with the latest work of Alexander around the concept of

    performance (see Alexander 2003, 2004, 2005; Alexander et al. 2006). It is this concept,

    and what it shows with regard to theoretical innovation in recent years, that constitutes,

    in this case, the major contribution that has to be borrowed and developed by a critical

    hermeneutics centered on social action.

    The idea of text is not totally eliminated Alexander still talks about social-symbolic

    texts or text-based societies (Alexander 2004: 538; Alexander et al. 2006: 1) but it

    leaves more space for a textuality that walks and talks before our eyes.8 Fundamentally,

    a performance does not merely consist of words or discourses but is a gesture and a sta-

    ging through which flesh-and-blood peoples play the roles they need to play: Cultural

    performance is the social process by which actors, individually or in concert, display for

    others the meaning of their social situation (Alexander 2004: 529). Be it in politics, in

    the arts, or in any other civic activities, what is aimed at is a fusion of the elements at play

    background symbols, means of symbolic production, mise-en-sce`ne, audience, etc. as

    if the success and efficiency of this or that performance depended on this fusion. In other

    words, the goal is to arrive at a certain verisimilitude, which is the capacity to make

    others believe, to give the appearance of reality, of control, and of authenticity. Needless

    to say, especially in the current state of social disarticulation, this is quite a sizeable

    challenge.9

    At first glance, it appears to be power and its apologetic virtue that take delight in

    theatricality and staging. A large body of scientific literature exists that deals with this

    topic ranging, for instance, from Kantorowicz (1957), Edelman (1985 [1964]) and

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  • Marin (1981, 1993) to Kertzer (1988) or Alexander (2005). By studying this material, it

    would even be possible to level with what Ricur has already said about the relation

    between the legitimization of authority and ideology. Nowadays, however, talking about

    social action makes it necessary to displace or bring down the center of gravity of this

    performativity towards civil society. There is no longer any question of a state

    monopoly, but of a growing fragmentation of symbolic actions and of ideologies

    combined with the extension of the democratic paradigm and the rise of post-industrial

    societies. In more loosely knit forms of complex social organization, Alexander notes,

    authority becomes more open to challenge, the distribution of ideal and material

    resources more subject to contention, and contests for social power more open ended and

    contingent (2004: 545). And this necessarily goes in conjunction with another phenom-

    enon, namely the booming growth of what Alexander calls hermeneutical powers

    (2004: 531; see also the latest work of Boltanski 2009), groups whose role is to

    constantly interpret and criticize authority. There are always reasons to raise doubts

    about power, be it because one questions the efficiency of its performance, its sincerity,

    or both. There is thus a primary vertical relation that must be crossed eo ipso with the

    more horizontal relation of civil societys grasp on itself. This latter axis is certainly the

    most important one, and the most urgent, if one needs to think like Walzer, to use a

    fundamental example of social criticism as social practice (1987: 3).

    Bringing down the center of gravity of ideological performances or putting these on a

    horizontal axis of practice shifts the focus on the dynamics of social movements and

    counter-movements (see, e.g., Mace 2005; Meyer and Staggenborg 1996; Mottl 1980).

    These are cultural phenomena in the fullest and most complete sense; they were recog-

    nized as such by the theory of new social movements in the 1970s and 1980s, and this is

    something that is more and more internationally recognized today (see, e.g., Earl 2004;

    Johnston and Klandermans 1995; Melucci 1985; Sasson 1984). In the United States, for

    instance, one finds discussions on the notion of frame (see, e.g., Benford 1997; Benford

    and Snow 2000; Gamson 1992; Goffman 1974) that are deeply compatible with critical

    hermeneutics. A frame is what delineates a parcel of reality by distinguishing an interior

    from an exterior, and by insisting on the relevance of this inside. Moreover, this inter-

    nal relevance is enhanced by the frames capacity to link and provide coherence to the

    diverse parts it contains. In other words, what this refers to is the production of an

    interpretation that builds its own world by reinterpreting the world exactly like a text,

    as a matter of fact.

    This is what, in any case, social movements and counter-movements do: they

    display . . . the meaning of their social situation, i.e. they endlessly try to frame anddefine social reality. How? By struggling against each other, by criticizing each other,

    and by mobilizing themselves for these struggles and critiques. As Eyerman states,

    if social movements articulate frames of understanding, the performance of protest

    actualizes them (2006: 198). The conflict of interpretations is thus a true and real con-

    flict that takes shape and crystallizes itself through concrete issues, like abortion or gay

    marriage, for instance. These issues, in turn, bring into play frames that are always partial

    and ideological, even though they do not recognize themselves as such, the reason being

    that the ideological stance is always ascribed to others as their mistake and their

    misunderstanding.10

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  • Social movements and counter-movements, their frames, and their interpretations, are

    fundamentally ideological for another reason, namely this trait inherent to action:

    knowing precisely that one can never be ethically neutral (Ricur 1984 [1983]: 94; see

    also Alexander and Jacobs 1998; White 1987). It is the same problem that appeared with

    regard to the aforementioned theory of meaning that resurfaces here: axiology and

    relationships to values remain impassable. Every social performance is a moral perfor-

    mance to the extent that it brings into play, at least as a background, the categories of

    good and evil. Of course, the diverse contents of these categories can change, as what

    was considered evil one day may no longer be so later, but the reference to a foundation

    of sacred versus profane, of purity versus impurity, changes little. It is thus possible to

    talk about a binary system Alexander, to continue with this example, speaks of a binary

    system of civil society (see, e.g., 1993, 1994, 1997; Alexander and Smith 2003). This

    system classifies and orders reality and will even find itself reinforced by the seeming

    disorganization and uncertainty of the present-day moral world. The more confusion, the

    clearer and more efficient performances from social movements and counter-movements

    must be or become; thus explaining in large part their propensity to become ideological.

    As Geertz rightly observes, ideology tends to be simple and clear-cut, even where its

    simplicity and clarity do less than justice to the subject under discussion (1973: 209).

    Once again, the goal is to convince, that is to say to arrive at a certain verisimilitude

    through which the meaning proposed by a given movement must become a meaning that

    is both acquired and relatively unquestionable. And that is where, in this very interstice,

    all kinds of effects of violence and domination could always come together. While

    moving, the limits of good and evil also provoke the movement of the symbolic

    boundaries of society and, by way of consequences, those of exclusion and injustice. In

    fact, notes Alexander, just as there is no developed religion that does not divide the

    world into the saved and the damned, there is no civil discourse that does not con-

    ceptualize the world into those who deserve inclusion and those who do not (2000:

    298).11 As a result, it is really to understand this incessant production of exclusion that

    constitutes the greatest challenge of a theory of action that is fundamentally concrete, but

    nevertheless capable of integrating the truly symbolic dimension of society.

    It is through this question of the dissymmetry of action and its penchant for inequality

    that the dialogue with critical theory can and must continue. More specifically, I would

    argue that this is a ripe breeding ground for the emergence of what can mostly be found

    in the later work of Honneth12 representing the third generation of the Frankfurt School.

    Honneths starting point is relatively simple: what comes first is the lack of justice, what

    is absent or deficient within justice itself. In other words, what comes first is the

    contempt and the denial that make it necessary to begin the study of society by its

    negative character or its pathologies (see mostly Honneth 1994; 2004a), in addition to

    seeing that it is this very negativity that gives its impulsion to action. Society is therefore

    fundamentally stirred by incessant struggles for recognition that share a desire to mark

    the passage from invisibility to visibility, from exclusion to inclusion, and from

    humiliation to respect and social esteem.

    What is perpetually at stake is the acceptance by others and by society, namely that a

    common space for participation, solidarity and difference can exist. Needless to say,

    achieving all of this is highly complicated as complicated as the achievement of fusion

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  • for any given performance, one might add. In fact, it is no longer only an issue of going

    from action to symbolism, but to return to a pattern that goes from the later to the former.

    The recognition at stake cannot simply be abstract, but must be concrete and practical.13

    For Honneth, it is important to see it as an action, as a daily event echoed in the

    subjectivity of real people: . . . an act of recognition, he writes, is never exhausted bymere words or symbolic expression since it is only the corresponding behaviour that

    establishes the credibility that matters normatively to the recognized subject (2002:

    50506; see also Ricur 2005). Another way of showing this highly important point

    would be to ask oneself a contrario what would happen if this recognition was neither

    concrete nor close to individuals. The answer consists of saying that it would have many

    chances of falling back into ideology, that is to say in the mistakes of a false recognition

    consisting largely of confining people to fixed categories or ensuring that they accept

    their own reification (see Honneth 2007, 2008).

    In more general terms, it is undeniable that by considering both the normativity and

    the negativity inherent to action, these Honnethian ideas become a normative theory in

    themselves. But it is necessary to see that this is not a problem, a kind of flaw or

    counterfeit that should be fought. On the contrary, this axiology is the condition of

    possibility for this practice and this theory. It is what allows the intertwining of the

    theory of recognition with that of symbolic boundaries, moral performances, social

    movements and, moreover, of all that constitutes a theory of symbolic action centered on

    the very possibility of exclusion, injustice and inequality. All these questions and

    sub-questions are linked by their normativity their will, in short, to decipher each

    parcel of ideology, domination and violence from their concrete sources and it is

    together that they must show how critical hermeneutics has no other choice but to

    develop a theory of action. The problem is therefore elsewhere. It mostly holds in the

    sociological sub-thematization of the effects of this normativity. Quite often, or perhaps

    too often, the action becomes associated to a production without wholly considering that

    it is also a reception, something perceived and received by flesh-and-blood people. Alex-

    ander, for example, states that the concept of performance takes into consideration its

    effects on the audience,14 and this, despite the fact that it is possible to ask oneself

    whether this part of his theoretical enterprise is as radical as it seems. Who does this audi-

    ence fundamentally consist of? How does it interpret and understand the roles played by

    social actors? How much of this is, or is not, shaped by ideology? In order to answer

    these questions, it is necessary to examine how critical hermeneutics has yet to develop

    a theory of experience.

    III. Critical hermeneutics as a theory of experience

    For the human sciences, there is perhaps no question as complex as that of understanding

    experience. However, there is no question of greater importance how else would it be

    possible to understand the influence of meaning, the weight of ideology, the negative

    character of society as well as their profound and interrelated impacts? Here, one must go

    back to the hermeneutics of textuality in order to understand its complete inseparability

    from a theory of reading. A text only renews and fulfills itself in a specific act of reading.

    As Ricur says, it is the receiver-reader as a flesh and blood person that answers to

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  • meaning, that answers to the thing of the text, in this unique experience called

    appropriation (see, e.g., 1981: 18293),15 namely that of taking something distant and

    estranged and making it ones own. This, of course, leads to a peculiar back-and-forth

    movement. A reading is the meeting of two worlds that confront and build upon each

    other, the world of the text and the world experienced by the reader. This is not a question

    of any immediate psychological connection a connection of empathy or identification

    with the author as in the romantic theory of Dilthey (1976 [1910]), for example.

    Appropriation is more a case of mediation, and more specifically of mediation made

    possible through interpretation. In fact, this is at the core of the analysis, namely that

    interpretation is a fundamental feature of both a theory of culture and a theory of action,

    but also, and more radically, of a philosophical anthropology.16 At this fundamental

    level, experience refers to human finiteness, whose meaning needs to be claimed as ones

    own to understand oneself.

    These distinctions are important to the extent that they all point towards a unique

    destination: the self-understanding of a subject, of a specific individual. This interpreting

    subjectivity of the self is absolutely primary and positive, though it had been impossible

    to access it before going through all that precedes, i.e. the problems of meaning,

    ideology, action, performance, etc. This leads, among other things, to yet another of the

    fine dialectics found throughout the work of Ricur:

    On the one hand, self-understanding passes through the detour of understanding the cultural

    signs in which the self documents and forms itself. On the other hand, understanding the text

    is not an end in itself; it mediates the relation to himself of a subject who, in the short circuit

    of immediate reflection, does not find the meaning of his own life. (1981: 158)

    Where does ideology then fit in this work on oneself? The answer to this difficult

    question goes through the idea of a dual experience, or of a single experience, but with a

    dual existential possibility. On the one hand, it remains true that ideology as text and

    interpretation of the world bends and unbends, rolls up and unravels the world of

    self-comprehension-interpretation. In other words, the latter remains within ideology. On

    the other hand, however, this work on oneself is certainly capable of presenting itself as a

    critique and, first and foremost, as a critique of the subjects illusions (see, e.g., Ricur

    1974 [1969]: 324; 1981: 22246). For authors such as Ricur, it is as much a question

    of mediation through interpretation, of distanciation within appropriation itself, as it is a

    question of reflexivity of the self in relation to the self. Of course, all this critical and

    multiform comprehension is always partial and fragmentary, but this has the advantage

    of avoiding alternatives that are too fixed, such as false conscience versus heroic detach-

    ment or daring resistance, for example one needs only to recall that it was this type of

    poorly mastered dilemma that was among the main problems in the Gadamer-Habermas

    debate. It is thus that the existential possibilities of being within ideology, and of being

    able to deplore its effects on oneself, appear as completely inseparable possibilities,

    namely that they always interpenetrate each other in what is, as a result, more a question

    of degree and nuance.

    If experience as lifeworld, appropriation, and comprehension is critical in its loving

    struggle with ideology, it is also moral and ethical in that it perpetually brings into play

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  • the problem of the subjects autonomy. What is fascinating about the latter is to see how

    it does not arise from an autonomous concept, or a disembodied philosophical

    anthropology, but from real, concrete interactions and forms of inter-subjective

    recognition, which again give rise to systems and conflicts of ideologies. Autonomy is

    thus always relative to the fragility of concrete actors, and in part linked to their

    vulnerability cultural and social, among others, through poverty, racism, etc. (see,

    e.g., Ricur 2001, 2005; Honneth 1995). This is why all forms of self-esteem and

    self-realization must still go through the detour of social esteem and, gradually, through

    diverse struggles for recognition.17 The aim of all this is the emergence of a subject that

    is both capable and responsible. On the one hand, a subject must gain the ability to give

    meaning to his own life something that Ricur deals with, for example, through the

    concepts of narrative coherence and ipseity.18 On the other hand, the autonomy in ques-

    tion constantly refers to the aptitude of thinking by oneself and interpreting the world for

    oneself. In other words, it is by daring to construct ones own reflections that the subject

    can develop his singularity and his integrity, namely that he can become, as Honneth

    states, a subject capable of reaching moral judgment. This is, of course, more of a task

    and horizon than a reality. Autonomy is a project, a telos. But it is also, paradoxically, the

    most certain and constant criterion to resolve the problem of ideology: anything within

    meaning, action, or experience that prevents the subjects autonomy from understanding

    and expressing itself could be argued as fundamentally ideological. The critical, herme-

    neutical, and moral dimensions of experience hence overlap fully.

    The different parts of the puzzle assemble themselves slowly. If all ideology is lived

    as an experience, not all experiences are necessarily ideological something that recalls

    the dual structure, positive and negative, of meaning and action. It is therefore necessary

    to have a criterion, and this criterion is linked to the autonomy of the subject within the

    perspective of critical hermeneutics. However, it is necessary to be careful that this

    criterion does not raise itself into a tribunal of reason or, for that matter, unreason;

    nothing here would be more harmful than to have the pretense of saying that certain

    people are ignorant and ideological, whereas others are capable of truthfulness. The

    criterion in question must thus be internal and not external, in relation to peoples life and

    interactions, and not only in relation to an abstract or disembodied theory. This is what

    Honneth emphasizes, for instance, when he states that the standards for critical

    judgment are to be derived from the normative convictions that are already shared by the

    addressees (2002: 514). And this has very important ethical consequences. When

    applied to individuals, in fact, the analysis of ideology does not have any other choice

    than to impose upon itself a certain duty of reserve, that is to say to move itself into an

    ethics that is both concrete and in situ. Judgment is deferred, or suspended, as long as the

    individual or individuals have not expressed themselves on their own conception and

    interpretation of the good life. Honneth, to continue with the example above, speaks of it

    as a moderate moral realism (2007: 332) whereas for others, and for Ricur in

    particular, this will take on the form of what he calls a small ethics (see, e.g., 1992

    [1990], 2002).

    What remains to be discussed is the role and capacity of the intellectual in all this.

    I would argue here that these capacities are not very different from those of any other

    subjects of experience. Examined from this angle, one only needs to state that the

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  • famous Mannheim paradox (see Mannheim 1936 [1929]) if ideology is in fact

    inescapable, how does one account for such a non-ideological truth about ideologys

    inescapability? is not so much a primary question than a final interrogation and, from

    this position, that the complication is not as insurmountable as it seems. Once more, the

    error would consist in wanting to create a firm opposition: either the intellectual gets

    stuck in ideology, or floats above it like Mannheims free-floating intellectual. In other

    words, the error would consist in not seeing that everything is a matter of practical

    mediation, and that intellectuals are also simultaneously in and out of ideologies at

    all times. For intellectuals as well, these two existential possibilities interpenetrate

    themselves, even if the question of knowing how critique can better enter into experience

    is always a question of greater poignancy and urgency. The intellectual seeks to carve out

    a certain distance within the core of the self, of his comprehension, and of his interpreta-

    tion of the world. In fine, it is this very distance and the effort involved in constructing it

    that comes closest to an ethics applied to the human sciences, namely that it is always

    necessary, among other things, to begin the critique of ideologies without ever knowing

    whether this critique can be completed.

    Conclusion

    The development of critical hermeneutics certainly remains a work in progress; a col-

    lective enterprise for which what comes before is but a minute part. In this article, it

    would have thus been necessary to show that the main challenge of critical hermeneutics

    resides in the fine dialectic, or the articulation of three analytical levels: a theory of

    meaning, a theory of action, and a theory of experience. First, ideology as a meaning-

    interpretation-text triptych is what reveals and hides reality through the permanence

    of symbolism, but also through the constant possibility of manipulation and distortion.

    As stated above, this analysis produces in turn a remnant in the form of its somewhat

    sizeable difficulty of giving off a concrete appearance, i.e. of being relevant in terms

    of action. In other words, if it is important to decode and decrypt the very ambiguity

    of signification, it is no less important to see how, and through what, it actualizes itself

    in everyday social life. Secondly, it is the task of a theory of action centered on, among

    other things, the concept of performance to examine the diverse ways by which the

    mechanisms of social inclusion-exclusion construct themselves. From a critical herme-

    neutics point of view, this is truly what social movements and counter-movements do:

    against the background of morality, they seek to ensure that recognition either becomes

    or does not become a fact of reality. As a result, this discussion produces its own remains,

    namely that it is still important to understand how all this performativity is received,

    perceived, and experimented by its audiences. Thirdly, ideology as an interpretation

    of the world is involved in the self-understanding of a subject nevertheless capable of

    keeping a distance from itself and thus somewhat criticizing its illusions. What is then

    central is the question of autonomy, whether it defines itself as a criterion to assess what

    is ideological in the final instance, or whether it presents itself as the beginning of an

    ethic for intellectuals.

    If this articulation is therefore accurate, critical hermeneutics could present itself as a

    humanist solution to the problems of the human sciences; a solution that is not devoid of

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  • flaws, namely by being theoretically and ethically ambitious without being able to

    achieve any synthesis. What, then, would be won or lost? From an epistemological point

    of view, it must be said that critical hermeneutics could no longer be seen as a science

    defined in opposition to ideology, nor as a method capable of guaranteeing its truth by

    the simple logic of its operations. Rather, it should be considered for what it is: a

    philosophy within the human sciences; that is to say, a theoretical project seeking to

    radicalize the task of comprehension. For this very reason, it is first and foremost a

    hermeneutics, even if it is also much more through its questioning and criticizing of

    either the limits or the failures of understanding. Now, from an ontological point of view,

    it must be said that critical hermeneutics reflects the many discrepancies that constitute

    our historical, social, and cultural universe. This world is made of tensions and gaps in

    order to ensure that disturbances and adjustments remain always possible, inside

    meaning, at the heart of action, and within experience. It is for this fundamental reason

    that a duality of positive and negative poles exists the way that social inclusion also

    transforms itself into exclusion, for instance. It is thus together that these gaps, tensions,

    and dualisms come to consecrate ambiguity as one of the most characteristic traits of this

    world. To be sure, gray zones are here to stay, if not to increase, thereby providing

    critical hermeneutics with a bright future.

    Acknowledgement

    The author wishes to thank Jeffrey C. Alexander, Werner Binder, Andrea Cossu and Danilo Mar-

    tuccelli for their comments and suggestions.

    Notes

    1. Among the works which most helped clarify this question, one could note those of Kogler

    (1996), Outhwaite (1987) and Thompson (1984b).

    2. How can one not see, for example, the political agenda behind such opposite positions as those

    of Bell (1962), on one side, and Hall (1982, 1996 [1983]) or Laclau (1996), on the other?

    3. Here is what Ricur has to say in this previously mentioned unfamiliar text: My thesis . . . is

    that the interest in emancipation would be empty and anemic unless it received a concrete

    content from our practical interest in communication and, therefore, if it were not confirmed

    by our capacity to creatively reinterpret our cultural heritage (1973a: 1634).

    4. It is important to note that very few commentators have chosen to address this question of the

    many links between symbolism, ideology and social integration within Ricurs work. One of

    the rare authors to do so is Moore (1990; see also, in French, Michel 2003).

    5. Another quote supporting this idea can be read as follow: It seems that the non-transparence

    of our cultural codes is a condition for the production of social messages (Ricur 1981: 227;

    see also Freeden 2006: esp. 11ff., dedicated to the obscure and the indeterminate).

    6. On this topic, it would certainly be interesting to consult Kaplans commentary (Kaplan 2003:

    esp. 3745).

    7. In more recent debates, many continue to propose unilateral views; Griffin (2006), for

    instance, gives everything to culture while Voirol (2008), for his part, insists on giving

    everything to critical theory.

    8. Over the years, many have accused the Alexandrian strong program of putting too much

    emphasis on the autonomy of culture and thus too little on concrete yet meaningful

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  • interactions (see, e.g., Langer 2004; Kurasawa 2004). It is my contention here that the renewed

    concept of performance answers most of the aforementioned critics by putting back culture

    into a proper theory of action.

    9. In short: The challenge confronting individual and collective symbolic action in complex

    contemporary societies, whether on stage or in society at large, is to infuse meaning by

    re-fusing performance (Alexander 2004: 548).

    10. This is an idea that one would find presented by many, Alexander, Geertz and Ricur amongst

    them. Having said that, it would be important to dissociate critical hermeneutics from certain

    new trends in resource mobilization theory (RMT), especially the latest work of Zald (see,

    e.g., Zald 1996, 2000; see also Olivier and Johnston 2000).

    11. The same idea is also found under a different form: Those who are lucky enough to become

    members of civil society, whether they are located at its very core or are more distant from the

    center, are continuously, even fervently, concerned with justifying why others cannot be

    included (Alexander 2007: 27).

    12. It is important to note that Honneths project has undergone several revisions since The

    Struggle for Recognition, especially in regards to its psychological dimension (see, e.g., Hon-

    neth 1995, 2002; see also, for commentaries, Alexander 2000: 291ff.; Alexander and Pia Lara

    1996; Ricur 2005; van den Brink and Owen 2007).

    13. This explains, among other things, why the debate between Fraser and Honneth is also a

    poorly framed debate, the positions of one and the other being not as irreconcilable as one

    would first imagine (see Fraser and Honneth 2003). The various manners in which the ques-

    tion of recognition gets more and more into the literature on social movements must also be

    noted (see, e.g., Hobson 2003).

    14. Like here, for example: Actions are performative insofar as they can be understood as commu-

    nicating meaning to an audience. For the purposes of understanding such performance, it does

    not matter what meaning really is, either for actors themselves or in some ontological or nor-

    mative sense. What matters is how others interpret actors meaning (Alexander 2005: 2).

    15. This is a well known problem from the biblical exegesiss subtilitas applicandi to its reformu-

    lation as application by Hans-Georg Gadamer in Truth and Method (see mostly Gadamer 1975

    [1960]: 2748).

    16. Ricurs most explicit claim for such a philosophical anthropology of interpretation can be

    found in Existence and Hermeneutics (1974 [1969]).

    17. This is something that was discussed earlier. For now, see, e.g., Honneth 2002: 504ff.; 1992;

    2004b: 358ff). Moreover, there are similar discussions in todays literature on social move-

    ments (see, e.g., Dubet 2004; McDonald 2004).

    18. These two concepts are the most important of Ricurs mature work, especially since the

    1990s and the publication of Oneself as Another (see, e.g., 1988, 1992 [1990]).

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    Biographical note

    Jonathan Roberge is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Chaire de Recherche du Canada en Mondiali-

    sation, Citoyennete et Democratie, Universite du Quebec a` Montreal. His first book, Paul Ricur,

    la culture et les sciences humaines, was published in the spring of 2008. He is currently involved in

    many research projects, including the edition of a forthcoming book entitled The Cultural Trans-

    formation of the Public Sphere: How the New Forms of Criticism Affect Our Time.

    22 Thesis Eleven 106(1)

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