Etyka, hermeneutyka i myśl słaba. Vattimo, Rovatti, Dal / Ethics, Hermeneutics , and ‘Weak Thought’: Gianni Vattimo, Pier Aldo Rovatti, Alessandro Dal Lago

Summary As ethics has acquired an increasingly prominent place in modern hermeneutics, this article attempts to show how ethical aspects of a broadly conceived process of interpretation function in the area of ‘weak thought’ (pensiero debole), which is one of the main developments - not just in Italy - in contemporary hermeneutics. A discussion of the concept of communication (crucial in the hermeneutic ethics of the founder of the ‘weak thought’ Gianni Vattimo, but no less significant in the work of Heidegger, Derrida and Gadamer) is followed by an examination of the contributions of Pier Aldo Rovatti and Alessandro Dal Lago. The latter have developed a distinctly ethical strand of ‘weak thought’ by concentrating on the issues of subjectivity (‘weakening’ of the subject as an ethical gesture) and language (ethical relinquishment of the quest for an absolutely clear and unequivocal manner of expression in favour of eg. metaphors, especially in philosophical discourse).