By Schubert Ogden
The Notebooks of Schubert Ogden
There definitely seems to be a connection between the concepts "working hypothesis," as Whitehead uses it, and "preunderstanding," as Bultmann understands it.
In the case of both, there is evidently a high premium to be placed on their being explicit rather than implicit. Insofar as one is explicitly aware of one's preunderstanding, one is less likely to be victimized by it in one's understanding, and it is capable of rectification, or, at least, refinement. Similarly, insofar as one's working hypothesis is explicit, it can be criticized and improved. On the other hand, "[t]o venture upon productive thought without such an explicit theory [sc. working hypothesis] is to abandon oneself to the doctrines derived from one's grandfather" (AI: 286).
October 2000
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