Incarnation and the nature of words
Below is a smattering of quotes from some passages in Gadamer’s Truth and Method that are serving as part of the inspiration for my final project in DXARTS 202.
Experience is not wordless to begin with, subsequently becoming an object of reflection by being named, by being subsumed under the unversality fo the word. Rather, experience of itself seeks and finds words that express it. We seek the right word–i.e., the word that really belongs to the thing–so that in it the thing comes into language. Even if we keep in mind that this does not imply any simple copying, the word still belongs to the thing insofar as a word is not a sign coordinated to the thing ex post facto…
There is, however, an idea that is not Greek which does more justice to the being of language, and so prevented the forgetfulness of language in Western thought from being complete. This is the Christian idea of incarnation…
For, in contrast to the Greek logos, the word is pure event…
…that which emerges and externalizes itself in utterance is always already a word…
The inner word remains related to its possible utterance…
…it is the act of knowledge itself.
The meaning of the word cannot be detached from the event of proclamation…