s. lourdunathan on tmp mahadevan slides

8/12/2019 S. Lourdunathan on TMP Mahadevan Slides

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Dr. S. Lourdunathan


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It is therefore, obvious that any label that wefix on the Advaitin (TMP) will not give a correctpicture of him. He values reason, but he is not arationalist. He seeks guidance from scripture,but he is not a dogmatic. He relies on

experience as the Ultimate court of appeal, buthe is not a positivist

Prof. R. B on TMPMahadeven

Indescribability as a way of describability - itself needs tohermeneuticized.


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iscussion1. What is the sense of TMPshermeneutical engagement

of Indian Philosophy in general, and Advaita inparticular?2. Is TMP a traditionalist in interpreting the scripture in

the sense that his interpretative engagement is a sortof tradition-rule-bounded, within the parametersrequired for anyinterpretation as stipulated by any

dogmatic textual authority?3. Is TMPsinterpretative engagement of scripture is sort

of logical positivists claim that interpretation shouldbe a matter of representation of the world of facts?

4. Is TMPs interpretative engagement falls within ahorizon of a given fore-structure and afore structureof a given hermeneutical circle?

5. Is TMPsinterpretative engagement open to consider aplurality of interpretations of the scriptural texts? Ifso,


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6. Is TMPsinterpretative engagement intentional?7. Is TMPs interpretative engagement specifically

culture-specific?8. Is TMPs interpretative engagement posits a space for

concordance or discordance, discontent or content?9. Is TMPs interpretative engagement rationally

justifiable? If so how?

10. Is TMPs interpretative engagement ethical if so, isthat ethical engagement ethical?11. Is TMPsinterpretative engagement though situated in

a specified cultural context, does it contain thepossibility to be directed by a Movement ofhermeneutical conversion and fusion of horizons

through which understanding or Communion(Covenantal life) becomes a possibility.12. in fine, What is the validity of the validity of TMPs

Textual hermeneutics?


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What is the sense of hermeneutics that Prof. TMP

Mahadevan employs in engaging Indian

Philosophical Traditions ?

Two broader dimensions of Hermeneutics

(i) As a Methodology of interpretation

(epistemological)

(ii) As a full-fledged science (constitutive of

the way of being-in-the-world)

Note: The former treated as the traditional

understanding of hermeneutics and the later as the

Modern & Recent developments in the science of

hermeneutics.


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(i) Refer to the rules by which we interpret or exegete("exegesis).

hermeneutics is a process of "bringing out" the meaning ofa scriptural text i.e., pre-given through linguistic ability

(2) As a methodology or normative basis for interpreting anyscriptural traditions the interpreter is required of

a. an understanding and proficiency of a language

b. an understanding the cultural context in whichinterpretation takes recourse to

c. and sufficient self-understanding of the message to beinterpreted and

d. logical ability to interpret the scriptures within the rationalground (Aristotelian)


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Unlike the catholic church tradition insisted a strong sense ofAUTHORITY and TRADTION as the AUTHOR of interpretation,(the monopoly of interpreting)

the Council of Trent in 1546 (Reformation Church) broughtabout a sea of change in the very mode of interpretingscriptures.

It proposed two important guidelines to the task ofinterpretation:

(i) The principle of Self-Sufficiency (ii) The principle of Perspicuity (self-expression), which broadly

speaking came to be termed as the modern intervention ormodern understanding of hermeneutics.


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While the Greek, and the Catholic tradition deemedhermeneutics as priority of an authoritative interpreterwithin a specified rules of interpretation,

the reformist came to consider interpretations as apossibility of anyone who engages the scriptures.

Thus Understanding is not the priority of a few ratherunderstanding is the possibility of anyone whoencounters the scriptures.

the idea of hermeneutics shifts from the private realm tothe public realm;

from the monopoly to a plurality of interpretations; from methodology to a science in-itself. From methodology to actuality of human sciences.


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The interpreter must set himself free from any normative or authoritativemode of reading/interpreting the scriptures in so doing s/he needs to let not only

(a) the scripture to speak to the listenerbut also let the (b) the cultural context to speak to the scripture,thereby, if there is any discontent or incoherency or conflict then suchproblematic be addressed as to render any interpretation intelligible.

Such a shift can be termed as an epistemological break, a break fromontological normative basis towards open-ended possibilities ofinterpretations as to treat hermeneutics as a way of being-in-the-world and as a pre-condition to our understanding of our worlds.


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These streams include

1. The naive hermeneutics of early modern Europe

2. Dilthey's historically conscious hermeneutic,

3. Nineteenth centurys methodological hermeneutics, whichsought to produce systematic and scientific interpretations bysituating a text in the context of its production.

4. In the twentieth century, Heidegger's and Gadamer'sphilosophical hermeneutics shifted the focus from interpretation(epistemological) to existential understanding, which wastreated more as a direct, non-mediated, authentic way of being

in the world than as a way of knowing.5. Ricoeur in his phenomenological hermeneutics attempted to

synthesize the various hermeneutic currents with structuralismand phenomenology.

6. Postmodernist render hermeneutics to a sense of relativity


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To be hermeneutical is to belong to a tradition the Text Context Being hermeneutical is an ontological priority as it isfundamental to our very own being.(understanding is

rooted in the historical cultural social context(Dilthey,

Saussure) Is To be Human; to be Hermeneutical is to be Human: Martin Heidegger critiquing the modernist cognition of

human being as self thinking self, a subject thatengages in cognitive acts, asserts that humans above

all else are beings-in-the world, enmeshed in socialnetworks

To Hermeneutical is to be Situated and irected Socially


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The ontologically epistemological The Extensional

The Intentional

The contextual


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To Be Hermeneutical is to be Human andto be Hermeneutical is to be human

To be human in hermeneuticalengagement is to be to be SociallySituated and Directed by a Movement ofhermeneutical conversion and fusion ofhorizons through which understanding orCommunion (Covenantal life) becomes apossibility among other possibilities butwithout losing sight of the primacy ofethics as metaphysics.


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Is TMPsinterpretative engagement though situatedin a specified cultural context, does it contain thepossibility to be directed by a Movement ofhermeneutical conversion and fusion of horizons

through which understanding or Communion(Covenantal life) becomes a possibility.

What is the validity of the validity of

TMPs Textual hermeneutics?

Indescribability as a way of describability - itself needs to

hermeneuticized.


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s. lourdunathan on tmp mahadevan slides

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