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German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer influenced the study of literature, art, music, sacred and legal texts and medicine. This volume brings together many prominent scholars to assess, re-evaluate and question Gadamer's works, as well as his place in intellectual history

Continental philosophers and their followers seem to be, for the most part, untroubledby the machinations, lies, political accommodations, inactions, and ethicalbreaches by major figures in that tradition. This does not lead to recognition of ironyby the scholars who then recommend these major figures as guides for ethics. CatherineZuckert goes so far as to that "philosophical dialogue and textual hermeneuticsare essentially ethical" (GR, 234). Cavell has chosen to declare an ethics as well. The theme of "moral perfectionism" that one can find in many of Cavell's books, particularlythe works dealing with the repositioning of Thoreau and Emerson, is part of anongoing project to locate something "American" in concerns about "moral perfectionism"and the everyday. We even have a book about what "Christians might learnfrom [Cavell]." Stanley Bates can serve as a representative of a chorus of writers whonot only embrace Cavell as someone presenting an ethical viewpoint, but who alsohave become proponents of that viewpoint. Bates has no hesitation in claiming onCavell's behalf a connection between ethics and politics: "Cavell is interested in thedimension of moral life that must be lived by an individual within a political setting, alife that a 'good enough' state of political justice makes possible, but that is not, andcannot be, determined by rules" (SCE, 42-43). Bates ends his essay by telling us thatin at least one important way, Cavell is like Nietzsche, and it seems as if Bates intendsthat to be a positive comparison. Bates seems free of any knowledge of Nietzsche'sposthumous "political setting" in the National Socialist period.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Section I: The Subject of Philosophy and the Philosophical Subject -- 1. Philosophy, Language, and Wizardry -- 2. Wittgenstein, Feminism, and the Exclusions of Philosophy -- 3. Speaking Philosophy in the Voice of Another: Wittgenstein, Irigaray, and the Inheritance of Mimesis -- Section II: Wittgensteinian Feminist Philosophy: Contrasting Visions -- 4. What Do Feminists Want in an Epistemology? -- 5. Making Mistakes, Rendering Nonsense, andMoving Toward Uncertainty -- 6. Tractatio Logico-Philosophica: Engendering Wittgenstein's Tractatus -- 7. The Moral Language Game -- 8. The Short Life of Meaning: Feminism and Nonliteralism -- Section III: Drawing Boundaries: Categories and Kinds -- 9. ''Back to the Rough Ground!'': Wittgenstein, Essentialism, and Feminist Methods -- 10. Wittgenstein Meets 'Woman' in the Language-Game of Theorizing Feminism -- 11. Using Wittgensteinian Methodology to Elucidate the Meaning of ''Equality'' -- 12. Eleanor Rosch and the Development of Successive Wittgensteinian Paradigms for Cognitive Science -- Section IV: Being Human: Agents and Subjects -- 13. Words and Worlds: Some Thoughts on the Significance of Wittgenstein for Moral and Political Philosophy -- 14. Big Dogs, Little Dogs, Universal Dogs: Ludwig Wittgenstein and Patricia Williams Talk About the Logic of Conceptual Rearing -- 15. Developing Wittgenstein's Picture of the Soul: Toward a Feminist Spiritual Erotics -- 16. ''No Master, Outside or In'': Wittgenstein's Critique of the Proprietary Subject -- Section V: Feminism's Allies: New Players, New Games -- 17. Wittgensteinian Vision(s) and ''Passionate Detachments'': A Queer Context for a Situated Episteme -- 18. Wittgenstein's Remarks on Colour as Remarks on Racism -- 19. Culture, Nature, Ecosystem (or Why Nature Can't Be Naturalized) -- 20. Moving to New Boroughs: Transforming the World by Inventing Language Games -- Bibliography -- Index -- Contributors