History V/s Hermeneutics

Robin Morgan, in her book, Sisterhood is Powerful, coined the neologism ‘herstory’. Etymologically the word history which comes from the Greek, istoria, meaning ‘learning or knowing by inquiry, has nothing to do with the possessive pronoun his. Nonetheless, Robin felt that coining a word like ‘herstory’ would drive home the powerful message that conventional history suffers from a great blindness in that it has systematically ignored the life and contribution of women. It has treated women as if they do not exist; as if they were a different species altogether. The question that needs to be asked is that considering that women constitute half of humankind, how did a discipline that prides in its attention to detail and objectivity miss out something as obvious as this? What needs to be done to ensure that women and other groups that mainline history has systematically ignored thus far are not overlooked anymore? It is difficult to disagree with the women who think that a discipline which has such major blind spots cannot make claims to great objectivity or credibility. Having said this which is an attempt made by Dr Ashley Miranda SDB a professor of the Institute of Salesian Philosophate – Divyadaan, to which I totally agree. I would further move on to say whether you like it or not there has always been a dichotomy in life. Be it – his/her, male/female, man/woman, boy/girl, baba/baby, good/evil, right/wrong, true/false, positive/negative, black/night, earth/sky, cause/effect, high/low, right/left, up/down, dark/bright, active/contemplative, empty/full, question/answer, and problem/mystery.  Let us take a look at what philosophers have to say about this with regard to Don Bosco’s life.

Ernesti 

      Don’t focus only on what don Bosco did or said but also historically, geographically and contextually.

      Interpret parts of Don Bosco’s life in the context of his whole life. Therefore a holistic understanding of don Bosco is important. Don’t concentrate on just the part of don Bosco’s life but on his life as a whole.

Schleiermacher

      Understanding Don Bosco is not a science but an art.

Herder

      Meaning of what Don Bosco thoughts depend on linguistically how he was able to express himself. I may have good thoughts but may not be able to express myself. A person can only think if he has a language and can only think what he can express linguistically. Meanings are also essentially grounded in (perceptual and affective) sensations.

Schlegel

      Linguistic interpretation of Don Bosco needs to be complemented with psychological interpretation of Don Bosco.

      There are unconscious meanings and thoughts in writings by and on Don Bosco which need to be considered when we understand Don Bosco.

Hegel

      All past meanings and understanding of Don Bosco are implicitly teleological in nature and thus leading or directed to our present understandings.

Ricoeur

      We have understand not only the surface meaning of what Don Bosco did but also the underlying meaning (hermeneutic of suspicion) of why he did what he did.

Heidegger

      If we want to understand Don Bosco we must possess the language to understand him.

      Fore – understanding is more fundamentally a matter of active engagement with the world than of theoretical contemplation (a detached reflection of Don Bosco) of it, more fundamentally a matter of the world being “ready-to-hand” than of its being “present-at-hand”.

Gadamer

      Interpretations of Don Bosco change over time and these changing interpretations are internal to the meaning independent of the text, or discourse in question, so that there is after all no such thing as an original meaning independent of these changing interpretations.

      The original meaning of linguistic expressions of Don Bosco from the past is always strictly speaking unknowable by us due to the essential role in all understanding of a historically specific for of ‘fore-understanding’ or ‘prejudice’ which one can never entirely escape.

Derrida

      An understanding of Don Bosco is something that only arises through an open-ended process of re (interpretation). We can understand Don Bosco more by differing with existing meanings or understandings or interpretations.  

We have surely gained some insights with inverter after looking at U & I of Don Bosco. Hopefully it has dawned some darkness in the light of which we live.