The Freedom of Understanding

Theories of understanding and critical theories are often understood as opposing positions. In his new book, Georg W. Bertram shows that this need not be so. As he conceives it, understanding is constitutively linked to processes of critique and self-critique – processes that are themselves rooted in conflict. For this reason, understanding, where it occurs, is not self-evident, but part of a practice that is broadly improvisatory. Based on this hermeneutic practice of freedom, it is possible to recognise what constitutes subjects.