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Lincoln’s Deadly Hermeneutics

Data publikacji: 11.05.2020

Teoria Polityki, 2020, Nr 4/2020, s. 197 - 215

https://doi.org/10.4467/25440845TP.19.024.11790

Autorzy

Terence Ball
Arizona State University, P.O. Box 873902 Tempe, AZ 85287-3902, USA
Wszystkie publikacje autora →

Tytuły

Lincoln’s Deadly Hermeneutics

Abstrakt

My aim here is to extend and further explore the deeper meaning of a phrase I coined some years ago: “deadly hermeneutics” (Ball, 1987):2 roughly, the idea that hermeneutics – the art of textual interpretation – can be, and often is, a deadly business, inasmuch as peoples’ lives, liberties and well-being hang in the balance. I plan to proceed as follows. By way of introduction and illustration I first consider very briefly three modern examples of deadly hermeneutics. I then go on to provide a brief account of the hermeneutical-political situation in which Abraham Lincoln found himself in the 1850s in the run-up to the Civil War and subsequently during the war itself. This requires that I sketch an overview of the Southern case for secession and, more particularly, their interpretation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to legitimize that radical move. I then attempt to show how Lincoln invoked and used a counter-interpretation of the Declaration in his speeches on the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), the Dred Scott decision (1857), and his debates with Senator Stephen A. Douglas (1858). I next look at President Lincoln’s interpretation of the Constitution in the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), his suspension of Habeas Corpus and, finally, his finest, briefest – and at the time highly controversial – Gettysburg Address.

Bibliografia

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Ball, T. (1987). “Deadly Hermeneutics; or, Sinn and the Social Scientist”. In: T. Ball (ed.). Idioms of Inquiry: Critique and Renewal in Political Science. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, pp. 95–112.

Basler, R.P. (ed.). (1953). The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

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Fehrenbacher, D.E. (1978). The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Informacje

Informacje: Teoria Polityki, 2020, Nr 4/2020, s. 197 - 215

Typ artykułu: Oryginalny artykuł naukowy

Tytuły:

Polski:

Lincoln’s Deadly Hermeneutics

Angielski:

Lincoln’s Deadly Hermeneutics

Autorzy

Arizona State University, P.O. Box 873902 Tempe, AZ 85287-3902, USA

Publikacja: 11.05.2020

Status artykułu: Otwarte __T_UNLOCK

Licencja: CC BY-NC-ND  ikona licencji

Udział procentowy autorów:

Terence Ball (Autor) - 100%

Korekty artykułu:

-

Języki publikacji:

Angielski

Liczba wyświetleń: 1212

Liczba pobrań: 1257

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