ABSTRACT
The previous chapter outlined a critique of Habermas suggesting that his critical theory is actually an unacknowledged form of critical hermeneutics. It was also argued that if the transformation of critical theory into a critical hermeneutics is the price to be paid for successfully making it past the linguistic turn, then it would also be the case that critical theory is little more than a stylized strategy of discursive or self-reflective phenomenological interpretation. While this transition might work toward bridging the overwrought gap between various modernist and postmodernist projects, this implication certainly falls short of the original aims of early forms of critical theory. In order to forestall this possibility, I think a turn toward proposals concerning a post-hermeneutic philosophy should be considered. The requirement of such a proposal rests on the possibility of articulating the significance of a non-interpretive moment as constitutive of subjective reception and intersubjective relations. This can be done in a speculative way by means of a materialist theory of revelation or secular illumination.
