Cynthia R. Nielsen

This book employs an interdisciplinary lens to help readers understand why Russia invaded Ukraine, as well as why and by what means it continues to wage war against the Ukrainian people, state, nation, culture, and the country’s environmental well-being. Through listening to, learning from, and analytically engaging Ukrainian intellectuals, Cynthia R. Nielsen in Ethical and Hermeneutical Reflections on War, Violence, and Responsibility: Listening to Ukrainian Voices demonstrates that Russia is not only carrying out an unjust war of aggression against Ukraine but also exposes how its use of (pseudo)History, gender narratives, information warfare, religious discourses, and other forms of propaganda have laid the groundwork for the present war and function to maintain it. By bringing contemporary Ukrainian voices such as Serhiy Zhadan and Olexsandr Myhked into conversation with hermeneutical, moral, and political philosophy and utilizing discourse analysis to explain Russia’s imperial identity, we not only gain a better understanding of why Russia invaded Ukraine, but also a clearer picture of how war in the 21st century impacts human lives and communities, culture, language, the information sphere, as well as the toll it takes on non-human animals and the environment. This book is an excellent supplement for anyone who is preparing to teach on Ukraine, Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, and the wars in post-modernity.

This book offers a sustained scholarly analysis of Gadamer’s reflections on art and our experience of art. It examines fundamental themes in Gadamer’s hermeneutical aesthetics such as play, festival, symbol, contemporaneity, enactment, art’s performative ontology, and hermeneutical identity. The first two chapters focus on Gadamer’s critical appropriation and movement beyond Kantian and Hegelian aesthetics. (Chapter 2 also includes a coda on Heidegger’s influence.) The final three chapters argue for the continued relevance of Gadamer’s hermeneutical aesthetics by bringing his claims into conversation with contemporary art and music, as well as the ethical and sociopolitical dimensions of the Artworld and art praxis. The ethical and sociopolitical aspects of art- and music-making are given particular attention in chapters devoted to 20th-century African American artist Romare Bearden, Banksy’s street art, and a range of jazz expressions, from traditional jazz to the complex practice of free jazz. Gadamer’s Hermeneutical Aesthetics will appeal to researchers and advanced students working on Gadamer, philosophical hermeneutics, continental philosophy, aesthetics, and the philosophy of contemporary art and music.

This book offers a sustained scholarly analysis of Gadamer’s reflections on art and our experience of art. It examines fundamental themes in Gadamer’s hermeneutical aesthetics such as play, festival, symbol, contemporaneity, enactment, art’s performative ontology, and hermeneutical identity. The first two chapters focus on Gadamer’s critical appropriation and movement beyond Kantian and Hegelian aesthetics. (Chapter 2 also includes a coda on Heidegger’s influence.) The final three chapters argue for the continued relevance of Gadamer’s hermeneutical aesthetics by bringing his claims into conversation with contemporary art and music, as well as the ethical and sociopolitical dimensions of the Artworld and art praxis. The ethical and sociopolitical aspects of art- and music-making are given particular attention in chapters devoted to 20th-century African American artist Romare Bearden, Banksy’s street art, and a range of jazz expressions, from traditional jazz to the complex practice of free jazz. Gadamer’s Hermeneutical Aesthetics will appeal to researchers and advanced students working on Gadamer, philosophical hermeneutics, continental philosophy, aesthetics, and the philosophy of contemporary art and music.