Hermeneutic Rationality

The Secondary Project Hermeneutic Rationality consolidates the philosophical dimension of Classical and Humanistic Studies at the CECH. Its theoretical objective is to respond to the question of what is reason, and how rationality manifests itself in different human spheres, namely in language, myth, knowledge, history, corporeality, craftsmanship, and the social and ethical forms of human sociability.

The project follows a humanistic and hermeneutic orientation, based on the assumption that the main characteristics of the Classics are their enduring relevance and universality. The appropriate approach to classical questions in philosophy, as well as to their central problems in the modern age, cannot ignore the reception and active transformation of ancient concepts. Accordingly, a methodology is adopted that comprises both the philosophical interpretation of the Classics and their critical and historico-philosophical reinterpretation.

Historically, research carried out in this area takes Ancient Philosophy as a model through which to consider contemporary philosophical questions. Beyond this, its principal theoretical concerns are Hermeneutic Philosophy, Classical German Philosophy, Phenomenology, and current problems facing practical and environmental ethics.

Related activities consist of the regular organisation of conferences and publications within the field of its theoretical questions and historico-philosophical goals, a permanent seminar on the Critical History of Reason, and work on the Laboratory of Rationality and Applied Ethics, in which the theoretical and hermeneutic dimension of research sustains the treatment of questions pertaining to bioethics.