1st Edition
Hermeneutic Dialogue and Shaping the Landscape of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology The Work of Frank Richardson
This volume introduces the methodological value of hermeneutic dialogue in the field of theoretical and philosophical psychology. It reflects on the works of Frank Richardson, who has made, and continues to make, seminal contributions to the field, as well as having influenced the work of many of the practitioners engaged in this field today.
Each chapter explores a major topic of hermeneutic dialogue and is authored by a scholar whose work has been directly impacted by Richardson's life and research. The chapters illuminate a variety of issues in psychology, such as instrumentalism, individualism, relationality, social ontology, the wisdom of limits, neoliberalism, and the idea that theory is a form of praxis. All contributions in this volume illustrate aspects of theory as practice coming to expression in reflection on theoretical and philosophical psychology and trace some of the implications for psychology, political philosophy, social justice, community, human dignity, and transcendence.
This book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of theoretical and philosophical psychology, philosophy of the mind, and personality theories.
- Introduction (Robert C. Bishop)
- Empty Selves, Multiple Selves, Engaged Selves, Our Selves: Frank Richardson and the Building of an Intellectual Movement (Phillip Cushman)
- Confessions of a Frankophile (Robert L. Woolfolk)
- The Long and Winding Road from the Critique of Individualism to a Social Ontology of Humans (Blaine J. Fowers)
- What’s Wrong with Liberalism? (Jeff Sugarman)
- A Hermeneutic Exploration of the Grounds for Social Justice (Brent Slife and Nathan Slife)
- Love Thy Neighbor: Community Within a Wisdom of Limits (Kathleen L. Slaney)
- Human Dignity, the One and the Many (Robert C. Bishop)
- How does the world become ecstatic? Notes on the hermeneutics of transcendence (Mark Freeman)
Biography
Robert C. Bishop is a professor of Physics and Philosophy and John and Madeline McIntyre Chair in Philosophy and History of Science in Wheaton College, USA.
"Frank Richardson has been a powerful, and profoundly influential, advocate of psychology grounded in the indispensable contribution of philosophical hermeneutics to the understanding of human experience and expression. In this volume, various luminaries of theoretical psychology articulate Richardson’s profound influence on them by discussing the themes closest to his heart, including the relational self, the dialogic nature of human understanding, the need for transcendence, and the critique of liberal individualism. This fine collection offers a fitting tribute to a key theoretical psychologist of our era, as well as a fascinating introduction to the themes he has championed." – Louis Sass, Rutgers University, USA
"Frank Richardson is widely recognized for fashioning an interpretive psychology that contrasts with and challenges the individualism, instrumentalism, and materialism that beset contemporary life. Central to Richardson’s oeuvre is a deep appreciation for and revelation of the social, relational, and communitarian constitution of us human beings as moral agents in communion with others like ourselves. The transformative power of this core realization flows through this wonderful set of essays, contributed by leading figures in theoretical psychology, offered as a tribute to a consummate teacher, companion, and fellow traveler. This is a book about what it is to be human." – Jack Martin, Simon Fraser University, Canada
