ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how active hermeneutics is of a better quality than other forms of thinking. These others may also be characterized as “active,” although often they are in effect actively anti-hermeneutical and actively unthinking. It is important to note that while the term “hermeneutics” has conventionally been used by scholars to highlight the uniqueness of their respective projects in the context of a greater community, the chapter develops a tension between a largely pejorative characterization of “hermeneutics” and the more successful form, referred to by the expression “active hermeneutics.” Changes in phrasing are not uncommon, of course, for scholars like to name their projects differently. The chapter considers the hermeneutical importance of the ability to perceive life possibilities as either living or dead. It explores Immanuel Kant's views on Enlightenment thought and Hannah Arendt's depiction of Adolf Eichmann to set out a more nuanced and descriptive account of “hermeneutical unthinking.”.
