Hermeneutics and Multiculturalism. The Three Hermeneutic Steps in a Multicultural Horizon and the Analysis of a Case: the Indigenous and the Contemporary Latin American

Abstract

This paper begins with the following hypothesis: philosophical hermeneutics and theconcept of “fusion of horizons”, proposed by Hans Georg Gadamer, applied to the multiculturalpostmodern landscape may provide the understanding of the “other” and notonly their knowledge, thus enriching the perception of their own horizon. Through amethodology of critical & conceptual review of the field canonical texts, and taking asstarting point the polemical “postmodernism” it arrives to two of its most outstandingphenomena: multiculturalism and globalization. These, identified as a source of “clashingmeaning horizons”, can take us to the “fusion of horizons”, following on the stepsand theory developed by H. G. Gadamer. Lastly, we will review the cases of contemporaryLatin American and the Indigenous, using the concepts developed throughout the paper.