Hermeneutics and intercultural understanding in the age of globalization

pages: 3-29

Abstract

In the article the author considers the relevance of intercultural understanding in the age of globalization and points out the role which Gadamer’s hermeneutics plays in this context. First, the author presents the main characteristics of globalization, taking into account Giddens’ understanding of the contemporary epoch as a radicalization of modernity and Heidegger’s interpretation of the contemporary era as the ending of metaphysics as nihilism. The author emphasizes that the question about conditions of possibility of intercultural understanding becomes an important question of philosophy in the situation of intensification of cross-cultural encounters. Then he argues that Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics, especially its conception of effective-historical consciousness, provides an acceptable ground for explanation of possibility of cross-cultural dialogue. As the author concludes, the importance of the ethics of finality is affirmed in that way by hermeneutics in the contemporary world. Keywords: globalization, modernity, Gadamer, Giddens, Heidegger, inter­cultural understanding