On dialogue and its interruption: between Gadamer and Derrida

Abstract

The renowned 1981 meeting in Paris between philosophers Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jacques Derrida sparked a significant polemic between hermeneutics and deconstruction. This debate centered on the concept of hermeneutic understanding (Verstehen) and its limits, particularly concerning the interruption of the comprehensive act. This encounter inspired subsequent research on hermeneutics by philosophers such as Gianni Vattimo, Jean Grondin, and Maurice Beuchot, among others. This research aims to revisit the well-known meeting and, from that starting point, to critically examine the predominantly gadamerian conception of interpretative understanding, dialogue or internal listening, and the possibility or inherent necessity of its «interruption». This entails a study of the «polysemy» and plurality of interpretative developments that can be discerned within the very negativity of the «interruption of understanding» as well as a revision of the concept of the eminent Text. This revision seeks to explore the interpretative resistance of literary texts to schematic and appropriative conceptualizations. To this end, the research will draw upon contributions from philosophers such as Gianni Vattimo and Maurice Blanchot, who emphasize and advocate for a «discontinuous development» and who value the interrogation of the uninterrupted progression of appropriative discourse.