POL 264 - Online Lecture (Thursday - Feb 15, 2018)

History as they say is written by the victor.  And in politics, being a constant struggle of power between political actors, right and wrong is relative to interpretation.  But just because one can speak an opinion, it doesn't mean that any opinion is right.  There are only reasoned and unreasonable opinions.  In such a way, written ideas require a certain accurate way of understanding.

The Essence of Hermeneutics

The study of analyzing political thought requires the process of hermeneutics.  My own professor in the UST Graduate School, etymologically explained the word hermeneutics as having the root word "Hermes," the name of the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology (Hornedo, 2013).  This is so because hermeneutics as a process was first used to interpret sacred texts, particularly the Bible.  Hence as Hermes was the one who brought the words of the Olympians to man, so was hermeneutics the process for man to better receive the meaning of the divine words.

Sacred texts were always linked with philosophical ideas, with theology being one of the branches of philosophy.  The ideas of the great thinkers, when written sometimes require a proper way of interpretation in order to decode it.  Hermeneutics doesn't have to be locked on interpreting sacred texts, or political philosophy, it can be used to decode or interpret human action, and human culture.

One example was a lesson from a different professor of mine.  This one explained the story of the judgment of the serpent in paradise.

God's judgment said: "as punishment, you shall henceforth crawl on your belly and eat dust all your life."

We all know that the snake crawls on its belly.  But does that mean because it crawls, it eats dust?  What is the meaning of "to eat dust" for the serpent?

To interpret, one must go back to the time of Adam's creation.  Man, particularly "corpus" the human body (in contrast to "anima" the soul) was made of dust.  

Hence, the serpent can attempt to continue to attempt to ensnare man, but the only thing that it can devour is the body, which dies, and not the soul.

The Process of Hermeneutics

The analysis of hermeneutics is a process.  Reading is not analysis, but a component of analysis.  When one reads, one simply understands written statements.  Analysis requires other components to help in reading in order to arrive at a proper interpretation.

1. Reading is the first part to interpretation.  Reading lets the reader know what's in the text.  It is the beginning of understanding.  
2. Aside from it, there is also rereading of the text.  Not simply because the first will not yield immediate understanding.  But also because there are details that the reader can miss at first reading.
3. What the reader has come to know, the reader can now cross reference with other texts.
4. Aside from texts, the reader has to know the background or context of the writer, and the background of the written material.  Take for example, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.  Both are social contract thinkers, but the first lived in a time of war, and the other lived in a time of relative peace.  Hence, each has a different version of the origin of the social contract.
5. An important component is the use of language.  That is why foreign languages are taught in college, and PhD students are required another set of foreign language.  It is better to interpret the ideas of the writer as written in the language of the original printing.  A researcher who uses interpretive method, but does not know the language of the writer has a research limitation on translation.  And will have to depend on the translation of others.
6. An unlikely element is the experiential element of text.  Text should not be confined to letters, words, and sentences.  The material can also be conveying, or existing in, a particularly set of emotions and images.
7. All these previous components should help the reader arrive at an abstract image.  Called a paradigm - a mental image of an idea  This is the interpreted thought.
8. But it does not end there.  The text must again be reread in order to validate the accuracy of interpretation.

Hermeneutic Application

Aside from Pol 264 as being a course in the sub-discipline of political thought, the writings, even the way Rizal lived is a rich ocean of ideas for hermeneutic analysis.  As one of the Philippine national heroes (Take note that I say one of, there is no single Philippine National Hero, this will be discussed in another lecture.) his life can be considered both as a paragon and an object of scrutiny.  

Heroes are in essence ideals from which citizens are to model themselves from.  Paragons are ideas made flesh.  Take for example the statue of Athena below

http://minerva.union.edu/wareht/gkcultur/guide/10/

Athena is herself a paragon of wisdom in the field of war.  If this image is a text, what she holds on her right palm is a key to what she is.  Another paragon - this one is the statue of the goddess Nike, personification of victory.  She is in the minds of the Greeks, victory incarnate.  The very name of the goddes (Nike) itself is the word for victory.  And Athena holds her, showing that it is Athena's wisdom which leads to victory in war.

Rizal as a hero do not simply has heroic qualities.  But certain things that he did in life also become part of what makes him what he is.  Also, do we simply accept Rizal as a hero?  One of the questions I initially raised at the beginning of class was, is he a Nationalist or an Assimilationist?  So which one is he?  And does being either credit or discredit him as a Philippine national hero?

Not just what he did, but also what he thought of.  The wisdom that Rizal passes to us from his time to our time are not simply norms.  Rather, a true political analyst will also know the process of how such a great thinker arrived at his thoughts.