Mikaela Martinez Dettinger: Gadamer on the art of speaking

     In a 1970 talk, Gadamer asserted that speaking in a form of dispute is common to the modern age. He said that rather than focusing on disputing we should focus on building up what is common in what is being discussed. From the perspective of a Political Science and Philosophy double major, it is obvious that this problem diagnosed by Gadamer fifty years ago is still pervasive today. One might even say that it is more pervasive. This problem, I believe, creates a world in which people approach every topic as if it has sides. People forget that there are no truly right or wrong answers. There is only what is and how we perceive it. This reminder of looking past our obstinate perspectives is at the heart of Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics. So what is a solution to our increasingly polarized and disputing world? 

    Similar to Dr. Redick's talk on Policing in America and the Ethics of Levinas, I think that Gadamer would say experiential education is a good place to start. When people become entrenched in opinionated disputes they often gear their selected rhetoric and information to match the side they believe in. I think that experiencing the life-world as a form of education would be a way to bypass this cyclical entrenchment of polarization. For example, take the epitome of polarization: politicians. They entrench themselves in party beliefs and oppositional rhetoric. Take them out of this microcosm in which these beliefs and this way of life is perpetuated and bring them to see the least privileged of their constituents. This jarring event would reveal to them the life-world and they might come to see that polarization is not reality and that the life-world and their role in it exists in the common goals on which their discussion is based. 

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