Central and East European
Society for Phenomenology

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182819

Response to Liangjian

Gianni VattimoSantiago Zabala(ICREA/UPF)

pp. 161-163

Abstract

The title Liu Liangjian contribution, "It's Time to Change the World, So Interpret It!" sounds very much like an order, instruction or command. Even though we always try to avoid these sorts of statements, there is a great temptation to use it now. This change of heart likely has a lot to do also with Eduardo Mendieta's contribution in this volume, in which he claims that Hermeneutic Communism reads like a manifesto. Perhaps, in the tradition of the manifesto, we should also have called everyone to interpret the world as clearly as Liangjian does. His contribution is not only remarkable in that it points to the similarities between "weak thought" and an ancient Chinese sage of Daoism (Laozi), but also insofar as it questions "whether interpreting is enough to bring alternatives, emergencies, or events to the world." In order to respond to this fundamental question, Liangjian reinterprets communism from a Chinese perspective in relation to our preference for the South American alternative.

Publication details

Published in:

Mazzini Silvia, Glyn-Williams Owen (2017) Making communism hermeneutical: reading Vattimo and Zabala. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 161-163

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-59021-9_22

Full citation:

Vattimo Gianni, Zabala Santiago (2017) „Response to Liangjian“, In: S. Mazzini & O. Glyn-Williams (eds.), Making communism hermeneutical, Dordrecht, Springer, 161–163.