James Risser is Professor of Philosophy at Seattle University. He is the author of Hermeneutics and the Voice of the Other: Re-reading Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics and editor of Heidegger Toward the Turn: Essays on the Work of the 1930s. He is editor (with Walter Brogan) of American Continental Philosophy: A Reader (IUP, 2000).

• AcknowledgmentsPlatonic Gestures1. Memory and Life: Hermeneutics as Convalescence2. Distressed Memory: Hermeneutics and the Venture of the Foreign3. Beyond Distress: Toward a Community of Memory4. The Fabric of Life: Dialectics, Discourse, and the Art of Weaving5. Severed Threads: The Incapacity of Language6. Reading beyond the Letter: On Memory and Writing7. The Flash of BeautyNotesBibliographyIndex

"More than enriching or clarifying issues in current debates, James Risser's work pushes hermeneutics toward a genuinely new stage of development."—Theodore George, Texas A&M University"The brevity of the book as a whole and the shortness of each piece . . . and the fact that they are only loosely connected is one of its great strengths. . . . Each piece is a real hermeneutic treat with rich, suggestive, and non-reductive analyses that in their content and methodology resist the simple summary that is of necessity, unfortunately, called for in a review."—Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews"Risser's style is clear and engaging without falling into the jargon of the theorists with whom he is working. . . . Recommended."—Choice"[T]he overall effort of the book to offer new insights into hermeneutics based on themes borrowed from Plato's work works out well: all chapters testify to a strong and sound scholarship that shows the fertility of Plato's dialogues for the continuation and renewal of hermeneutics as it has been developed in the works of Gadamer and Heidegger."—Heythrop Journal

James Risser is Professor of Philosophy at Seattle University. He is the author of Hermeneutics and the Voice of the Other: Re-reading Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics and editor of Heidegger Toward the Turn: Essays on the Work of the 1930s. He is editor (with Walter Brogan) of American Continental Philosophy: A Reader (IUP, 2000).

• AcknowledgmentsPlatonic Gestures1. Memory and Life: Hermeneutics as Convalescence2. Distressed Memory: Hermeneutics and the Venture of the Foreign3. Beyond Distress: Toward a Community of Memory4. The Fabric of Life: Dialectics, Discourse, and the Art of Weaving5. Severed Threads: The Incapacity of Language6. Reading beyond the Letter: On Memory and Writing7. The Flash of BeautyNotesBibliographyIndex

"More than enriching or clarifying issues in current debates, James Risser's work pushes hermeneutics toward a genuinely new stage of development."—Theodore George, Texas A&M University"The brevity of the book as a whole and the shortness of each piece . . . and the fact that they are only loosely connected is one of its great strengths. . . . Each piece is a real hermeneutic treat with rich, suggestive, and non-reductive analyses that in their content and methodology resist the simple summary that is of necessity, unfortunately, called for in a review."—Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews"Risser's style is clear and engaging without falling into the jargon of the theorists with whom he is working. . . . Recommended."—Choice"[T]he overall effort of the book to offer new insights into hermeneutics based on themes borrowed from Plato's work works out well: all chapters testify to a strong and sound scholarship that shows the fertility of Plato's dialogues for the continuation and renewal of hermeneutics as it has been developed in the works of Gadamer and Heidegger."—Heythrop Journal

James Risser is Professor of Philosophy at Seattle University. He is the author of Hermeneutics and the Voice of the Other: Re-reading Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics and editor of Heidegger Toward the Turn: Essays on the Work of the 1930s. He is editor (with Walter Brogan) of American Continental Philosophy: A Reader (IUP, 2000).

• AcknowledgmentsPlatonic Gestures1. Memory and Life: Hermeneutics as Convalescence2. Distressed Memory: Hermeneutics and the Venture of the Foreign3. Beyond Distress: Toward a Community of Memory4. The Fabric of Life: Dialectics, Discourse, and the Art of Weaving5. Severed Threads: The Incapacity of Language6. Reading beyond the Letter: On Memory and Writing7. The Flash of BeautyNotesBibliographyIndex

"More than enriching or clarifying issues in current debates, James Risser's work pushes hermeneutics toward a genuinely new stage of development."—Theodore George, Texas A&M University"The brevity of the book as a whole and the shortness of each piece . . . and the fact that they are only loosely connected is one of its great strengths. . . . Each piece is a real hermeneutic treat with rich, suggestive, and non-reductive analyses that in their content and methodology resist the simple summary that is of necessity, unfortunately, called for in a review."—Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews"Risser's style is clear and engaging without falling into the jargon of the theorists with whom he is working. . . . Recommended."—Choice"[T]he overall effort of the book to offer new insights into hermeneutics based on themes borrowed from Plato's work works out well: all chapters testify to a strong and sound scholarship that shows the fertility of Plato's dialogues for the continuation and renewal of hermeneutics as it has been developed in the works of Gadamer and Heidegger."—Heythrop Journal