fusion of horizons

the merging of perspectives which in HERMENEUTICS is seen as an essential feature of the understanding of an unfamiliar TEXT or culture (GADAMER, 1960). For Gadamer, such ‘understanding is not a matter of forgetting our own horizons of meanings and putting ourselves within that of the alien text or the alien society’ (Outhwaite, 1985) and therefore not a matter of‘detachment’; instead, it involves a ‘rapprochement between our present world… and the different world we seek to appraise’. The concept stands opposed to two ideas:

that we can expect to understand and explain alien cultures and societies by imposing an external ‘grid’; and
that we can never hope to understand (or translate) such ideas. Rather ‘truth’ can be the outcome of such a fusion.

The idea of INTERSUBJECTIVITY as the basis of scientific knowledge or political agreements has a similar basis (compare FEYERABEND, HABERMAS), although the fusion of horizons for Gadamer is far from being the basis for ‘emancipatory knowledge’ it is for Habermas. However, the similarity indicates that Gadamer's hermeneutics does not necessarily involve the degree of RELATIVISM sometimes suggested.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000

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References in periodicals archive

Conceived as a coherent set of situations, the evolution of the world is also, seen as a fusion of horizons of a different hermeneutical situation.

MAIN ELEMENTS OF H.-G. GADAMER'S COMMUNICATION HERMENEUTICS/PAGRINDINIAI H.-G. GADAMERIO KOMUNIKACIJOS HERMENEUTIKOS ELEMENTAI

I intend to focus on the notion of "understanding", "hermeneutical circle", "fusion of horizons" and "dialogue", which I believe would be useful in literary criticism not in terms of methodology, but in the manner these notions might guide criticism in general.

Translation as an act of interpretive process: interpreting the "Snow Man"

Zhang grounds his analysis in a careful reading of the debts reception studies owe to Hans Robert Jauss, and of the complex relationship between Jauss' philosophy of literary history and the Gadamerian "fusion of horizons." Through this theoretical intervention, Zhang argues for a corrective rebalancing of our current focus on reception history and Rezeptionsasthetik, towards a greater appreciation of the Gademerian horizons of the "classic" itself, and on Gadamer's understanding of the "timelessness" of a classic as a mode of historical being.

Introduction

After being raised by Gadamer, the idea of "fusion of horizons" has been advocated by numerous comparatists as a guiding principle.

Chinese-Western narrative poetics: state of the art

Chung's discussion of the fusion of horizons brings attention to the need for inclusive missiological praxis in multi-cultural contexts.

Reclaiming Mission as Constructive Theology: Missional Church and World Christianity

It is in dialogue that a fusion of horizons can take place between individuals or between a text and a reader, and hence meaning can be generated.

The (w)hole in the text: a hermeneutic reading of Marguerite Duras's la pluie d'ete

Understanding another involves a "fusion of horizons," as H.-G.

Dilemmas and Connections: Selected Essays

Gadamer's (1976) concept of the "fusion of horizons" was used to understand the hermeneutic interpretation of the concept praxis by various authors.

Rogers' Science of Unitary Human Beings and praxis: an ontological review

This dictionary addresses some of his indulgences in that area (like "fusion of horizons"), but does much more by contextualizing the way ordinary words (like "tradition") take on non-obvious meanings in his writing.

The Gadamer dictionary

From this perspective Hawthorne's and O'Connor's romances reflect that process in breaking down Descartes' subject/object exclusivity and separation and pursuing a more dialogical procedure toward Gadamer's belief in the "fusion of horizons" as the more necessarily human possibility.

Piper, Wendy. Misfits and Marble Fauns: Religion and Romance in Hawthorne & O'Connor