Wittgensteins, Heideggers, and Gadamers, Oh My!

Teleoaffectivity is one of the main means by which adult human life can be distinguished from that of other animals. Other animals, including human infants, have ends, as well as understandings. They lack, however, both explicit formulations specifying how they should behave and the complex and shifting interplay of ends and moods typical of adult human practices. This teleoaffectivity is the key to practice-based hermeneutics, as interpreting any given doing or saying involves discerning the practice or practices in which it plays a part, particularly the ends toward which it is directed and the moods it expresses. Our actions are transparent to ourselves and to others largely to the extent that the practices we are taking part in are familiar and apparent to all.