The Responsibility to Understand

What is the significance of hermeneutics at the intersections of ethics, politics and the arts and humanities? Few topics have received broader attention within contemporary philosophy than that of responsibility. Theodore George makes a novel case for a distinctive sense of responsibility at stake in the hermeneutical experiences of understanding and interpretation. He argues for the significance of this hermeneutical responsibility in the context of our relations with things, animals and others, as well as political solidarity and the formation of solidarities through the arts, literature and translation. Theodore George is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Texas A&M University.