Gadamer, Hans-Georg (1900–2002)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Wright
Keyword(s):  
Being And Time ◽  
Philosophical Hermeneutics ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Paul Celan ◽  
The Core ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Important Publication ◽  
Truth And Method ◽  
Absolute Knowledge ◽  
Hans Georg Gadamer

Hans-Georg Gadamer is best known for his philosophical hermeneutics. Gadamer studied with Martin Heidegger during his preparation of Being and Time (1927). Like Heidegger, Gadamer rejects the idea of hermeneutics as merely a method for the human and historical sciences comparable to the method of the natural sciences. Philosophical hermeneutics is instead about a process of human understanding that is inevitably circular because we come to understand the whole through the parts and the parts through the whole. Understanding in this sense is not an ‘act’ that can be secured methodically and verified objectively. It is an ‘event’ or ‘experience’ that we undergo. It occurs paradigmatically in our experience of works of art and literature. But it also takes place in our disciplined and scholarly study of the works of other human beings in the humanities and social sciences. In each case, understanding brings self-understanding. Philosophical hermeneutics advocates a mediated approach to self-understanding on the model of a conversation with the texts and works of others. The concept of dialogue employed here is one of question and answer and is taken from Plato. Such understanding never becomes absolute knowledge. It is finite because we remain conditioned by our historical situation, and partial because we are interested in the truth that we come to understand. By grounding understanding in language and dialogue as opposed to subjectivity, Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics avoids the danger of arbitrariness in interpreting the works of others. Gadamer’s most important publication is Wahrheit und Methode (Truth and Method) (1960). He also published four volumes of short works, Kleine Schriften (1967–77), containing important hermeneutical studies of Plato, Hegel, and Paul Celan among others. His many books and essays are collected into ten volumes (Gesammelte Werke). Gadamer was widely known as a teacher who practised the dialogue which is at the core of his philosophical hermeneutics.

Textual Intercourse: Gadamer’s Penetration Into the Depths of Understanding

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis Deodato S. Itao ◽  
Jiolito L. Benitez
Keyword(s):  
Martin Heidegger ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Truth And Method ◽  
Dialogic Interaction ◽  
Text Language ◽  
Hans Georg Gadamer ◽  
Intimate Exchange ◽  
Human Rationality

As rational animals, human beings not only have the ability to think but also the capacity to understand. Human rationality is constituted by thinking and understanding. The immediate connotation of rationality, however, is almost always thinking. Hence, to speak of man as an animal rationale is to speak of man as a thinking being. But following his mentor Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer insists that man does not only think, but most importantly understands. To understand is an essential part of being human, of being rational. But what understands? What does it mean to understand? The issue of human understanding is not something simply epistemological; rather, it is something hermeneutical. That is to say, understanding always relates to the act of interpretation. In his monumental work Truth and Method, Gadamer diligently considers the matter of human understanding from a purely hermeneutical perspective. This paper, then, aims to synthesize Gadamer’s hermeneutical theory and argues that for Gadamer, human understanding is essentially characterized by a kind of textual intercourse, that is, a dialogic interaction or an intimate exchange of horizons between an interpreting subject and a text which, in very broad terms, can refer to any object of interpretation. Keywords – understanding, interpretation, hermeneutics, text, language, dialectic

Islamic Intellectualism

2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Norman K. Swazo
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Hermeneutics ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Western Modernity ◽  
Textual Interpretation ◽  
Double Movement ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
German Philosopher ◽  
Truth And Method ◽  
Hans Georg Gadamer ◽  
Qur'anic Interpretation

The Pakistani scholar Fazlur Rahman disagreed with the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer on elements of philosophical hermeneutics as they bear upon interpretation of texts ‒ in this case, the interpretation of the Qur’ān. Rahman proposed a “double-movement” theory of Qur’ānic interpretation through which he hoped for the revival and reform of Islamic intellectualism in its encounter with Western modernity, but also with difference from Islamic orthodoxy’s conceptualization of ijtihād. In this paper, I examine Rahman’s concerns as they relate to Gadamer’s general approach to understanding history and textual interpretation. Rahman argued that if Gadamer’s thesis concerning the forestructure1 of human understanding is correct, then Rahman’s theory has no meaning at all. I conclude that there is reason to see Rahman’s theory as consistent with Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics, albeit with some modification given Rahman’s focus on psychologism and objectivity as part of his approach to Qur’ānic interpretation. It is the tyranny of hidden prejudices that makes us deaf to what speaks to us in tradition. Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method

Islamic Intellectualism

2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Norman K. Swazo
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Hermeneutics ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Western Modernity ◽  
Textual Interpretation ◽  
Double Movement ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
German Philosopher ◽  
Truth And Method ◽  
Hans Georg Gadamer ◽  
Qur'anic Interpretation

The Pakistani scholar Fazlur Rahman disagreed with the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer on elements of philosophical hermeneutics as they bear upon interpretation of texts ‒ in this case, the interpretation of the Qur’ān. Rahman proposed a “double-movement” theory of Qur’ānic interpretation through which he hoped for the revival and reform of Islamic intellectualism in its encounter with Western modernity, but also with difference from Islamic orthodoxy’s conceptualization of ijtihād. In this paper, I examine Rahman’s concerns as they relate to Gadamer’s general approach to understanding history and textual interpretation. Rahman argued that if Gadamer’s thesis concerning the forestructure1 of human understanding is correct, then Rahman’s theory has no meaning at all. I conclude that there is reason to see Rahman’s theory as consistent with Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics, albeit with some modification given Rahman’s focus on psychologism and objectivity as part of his approach to Qur’ānic interpretation. It is the tyranny of hidden prejudices that makes us deaf to what speaks to us in tradition. Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method

3. Philosophical hermeneutics

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Life Experience ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Philosophical Hermeneutics ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
German Philosopher ◽  
Truth And Method ◽  
Hans Georg Gadamer ◽  
Basic Movement

Philosophical hermeneutics refers to the detailed examination of human understanding that began with the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002). In his book, Truth and Method, Gadamer drew together many of the previously discussed insights from Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Husserl, and Heidegger to provide an extensive description of what understanding is. ‘Philosophical hermeneutics’ outlines Gadamer’s key views: he believed that our perception of the world is not primarily theoretical but practical; he regarded understanding as the basic movement of human existence that encompasses the whole of life experience; language is central to shaping our understanding of the world; mediation is the heart of the hermeneutic experience; and application is its soul.

scholarly journals Ordinary Transubstantiations: Gadamer’s Notion of ‘Speculative’ and Material Logic of Hermeneutic Experience

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilya Inishev
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Hermeneutics ◽  
Core Element ◽  
The Core ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Ontological Dimension ◽  
Truth And Method ◽  
Subjective Side ◽  
Main Distinguishing Feature

According to Gadamer, the main distinguishing feature of hermeneutic experience is its ontological dimension epitomized by complex and multilayered transformative processes expressed in such formulae as ‘increasing in being’, ‘transformation into the true’ or ‘total mediation’. This notion of ontological experience as a transformative event allows two readings. The weak reading of Gadamer’s hermeneutic ontology (favoured by Gadamer himself as well as by all his interpreters and critics), laying the stress on interpreter’s self-consciousness, contents itself with just ‘subjective’ side of transformative effects of hermeneutic experience. The strong treatment of transformative potential of hermeneutic experience, which corresponds better to the universality claim of philosophical hermeneutics, presupposes equally strong transformation affecting not only interpreter’s self-consciousness but also her body as well as material environments of interpretive experience. We find the elements of such a ‘strong’ treatment of the transformative (i.e. ontological) potential of understanding in Gadamer’s conception of the speculative, adumbrated in the concluding sections of his ‘Truth and Method’. Drawing on this conception, the paper proposes the notion of transubstantiation as a model for describing the bodily-material dimension of transformative processes making up the core element of hermeneutic ontology.

Gadamerian and Chinese Philosophical Reflections on the Developments of Chung-ying Cheng’s Post-Dialogue Onto-hermeneutic Philosophy

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-356
Author(s):  
Lauren F. Pfister
Keyword(s):  
Gospel Of John ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Hermeneutic Philosophy ◽  
Human Understanding ◽  
Truth And Method ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
Hans Georg Gadamer ◽  
Philosophical Writings ◽  
Chinese Philosophers

Abstract In light of developments in Chung-ying Cheng’s (1935-) onto-hermeneutic philosophy during the years after his dialogue with Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002) took place in Heidelberg in May 2000, I explore several new issues related to Cheng’s understanding of Gadamer’s hermeneutic philosophy. First of all, I argue that Cheng has not addressed the vital concept of the “inner word” in Gadamer’s Truth and Method, and point toward some of its fecund hermeneutic significance, especially with regard to its characterization of Sprache/Language and its dynamics within human understanding. Secondly, I underscore the fact that Cheng (and the majority of other contemporary Chinese philosophers) have not understood the profound impact of Christian philosophical writings in Gadamer’s work, particularly in his claim that Christian ontology offers an alternative to ancient Greek ontologies that are “categorically significant.” Finally, I describe and analyze the development of a new theistic understanding of reality within Cheng’s post-dialogue publications, suggesting ways of critically advancing his claims in the light of Gadamer’s account of the “inner word” and the Christian ontological claims grounded in the logos-theology as presented in the prologue to the Gospel of John.

Interpreting the World Is Transforming the World

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-84
Author(s):  
Gianni Vattimo ◽  
Paolo Diego Bubbio ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Being And Time ◽  
Objective Reality ◽  
The Core ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Truth And Method ◽  
Ontological Turn

Vattimo argues that the core of Gadamer’s hermeneutics resides in the identification of interpreting with changing the world, and analyzes the ontological turn in hermeneutics in light of such identification. Vattimo advocates for a radical reading of Gadamer’s claim “Being, which can be understood, is language” and maintains that hermeneutics requires a profound revolution in ontology, overcoming the idea of Being as a given object “out there”. In light of the dialogue that Gadamer’s Truth and Method establishes with Heidegger’s Being and Time, Vattimo concludes that hermeneutic ontology has its core in the identification of reality with the history of effects; not as a descriptive proposition, but as the meaning of Being in whose horizon hermeneutics interprets the experience of the world. A coherent philosophy of interpretation, conceived as a call to transform the objective reality of things “out there” into truth, namely into language and project, actually changes the world.

Adaptations of Time Travel Narratives in Japanese Multimedia: Nurturing Eudaimonia across Time and Space

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung-Ae Lee
Keyword(s):  
Travel Narratives ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Past ◽  
Life Styles ◽  
Concern For Others ◽  
The Future ◽  
Live Action

To displace a character in time is to depict a character who becomes acutely conscious of his or her status as other, as she or he strives to comprehend and interact with a culture whose mentality is both familiar and different in obvious and subtle ways. Two main types of time travel pose a philosophical distinction between visiting the past with knowledge of the future and trying to inhabit the future with past cultural knowledge, but in either case the unpredictable impact a time traveller may have on another society is always a prominent theme. At the core of Japanese time travel narratives is a contrast between self-interested and eudaimonic life styles as these are reflected by the time traveller's activities. Eudaimonia is a ‘flourishing life’, a life focused on what is valuable for human beings and the grounding of that value in altruistic concern for others. In a study of multimodal narratives belonging to two sets – adaptations of Tsutsui Yasutaka's young adult novella The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Yamazaki Mari's manga series Thermae Romae – this article examines how time travel narratives in anime and live action film affirm that eudaimonic living is always a core value to be nurtured.

Jalan Kesempurnaan Menurut Jamaah Insan Al-Kamil di Cijati Desa Cikareo Selatan Sumedang

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-37
Author(s):  
Syarifudin Syarifudin
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Core ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Religious Sect ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

Each religious sect has its own characteristics, whether fundamental, radical, or religious. One of them is Insan Al-Kamil Congregation, which is in Cijati, South Cikareo Village, Wado District, Sumedang Regency. This congregation is Sufism with the concept of self-purification as the subject of its teachings. So, the purpose of this study is to reveal how the origin of Insan Al-Kamil Congregation, the concept of its purification, and the procedures of achieving its purification. This research uses a descriptive qualitative method with a normative theological approach as the blade of analysis. In addition, the data generated is the result of observation, interviews, and document studies. From the collected data, Jamaah Insan Al-Kamil adheres to the core teachings of Islam and is the tenth regeneration of Islam Teachings, which refers to the Prophet Muhammad SAW. According to this congregation, self-perfection becomes an obligation that must be achieved by human beings in order to remember Allah when life is done. The process of self-purification is done when human beings still live in the world by knowing His God. Therefore, the peak of self-purification is called Insan Kamil. 

Gadamer com Platão e o conhecimento na hermenêutica filosófica

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-38
Author(s):  
Cristian Marques
Keyword(s):  
Sao Paulo ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
British Society ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Empirical Knowledge ◽  
Philosophical Hermeneutics ◽  
Porto Alegre ◽  
Belo Horizonte ◽  
Hans Georg Gadamer ◽  
Shed Light

Resumo: O objetivo deste artigo é explicitar aspectos da interpretação de Gadamer à Carta Sétima de Platão que lancem luz sobre quais traços fundamentais são imprescindíveis a uma epistemologia que se ancore na hermenêutica filosófica. Merold Westphal propôs em um artigo que a hermenêutica filosófica poderia fornecer elementos para uma renovação da epistemologia analítica. O presente trabalho inscreve-se no interesse amplo de tratar sobre que implicações teriam para noção de conhecimento se a epistemologia seguisse o caminho apontado por Westphal. Para tanto, escolhemos um trabalho onde Hans Georg Gadamer, principal defensor da hermenêutica filosófica, explora uma interpretação fenomenológica de Platão em que identificamos elementos relevantes para pensar a noção de conhecimento dentro dessa chave de leitura. Hans-Georg Gadamer explora, sob a luz de sua concepção ontológico-hermenêutica, o texto da Carta Sétima, dando um entendimento renovado a alguns aspectos da obra platônica, bem como indicações a uma compreensão fenomenológica do conhecimento.  Palavras-chave: Teoria do Conhecimento. Gadamer. Platão. Carta Sétima. Hermenêutica.   Abstract: The aim of this article is to make explicit aspects of Gadamer 's interpretation of Plato's Seventh Letter that shed light on what fundamental traits are indispensable to an epistemology that is anchored in philosophical hermeneutics. Merold Westphal proposed in an article that philosophical hermeneutics could provide elements for a renewal of analytic epistemology. This paper is part of the broader interest of discussing what implications would have for the notion of knowledge if epistemology followed the path Westphal pointed out. For this, we chose a work where Hans Georg Gadamer, the main defender of philosophical hermeneutics, explores a phenomenological interpretation of Plato in which we identify relevant elements to think the notion of knowledge within this key of reading. Hans-Georg Gadamer explores, in the light of his ontological-hermeneutic conception, the text of the Seventh Letter, giving a renewed understanding to some aspects of the Platonic work, as well as indications to a phenomenological understanding of knowledge.  Keywords: Theory of Knowledge. Gadamer. Plato. Seventh Letter. Hermeneutics. REFERÊNCIASBONJOUR, L. The structure of empirical knowledge. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985.GADAMER, H.-G. Dialektik ist nicht Sophistik. Theätet lernt das im Sophistes. In: Griechische Philosophie. t.3. Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 7. Tubingen: Mohr, 1985c [1990], pp.338-370._______. Dialektik und Sophistik im siebenten Platonischen Brief. In: Griechische Philosophie. t.2. Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 6. Tubingen: Mohr, 1985b [1964], pp.90-115._______. Die phänomenologische Bewegung. In: Neuere Philosophie, t. 1; Hegel, Husserl, Heidegger. Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 3. Tubingen: Mohr, 1987 [1963], pp.105-146._______. Hegel und Heidegger. In: Neuere Philosophie, t. 1; Hegel, Husserl, Heidegger. Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 3. Tubingen: Mohr, 1987 [1971], pp.87-101._______. Platos dialektische Ethik. In: Griechische Philosophie. t.1. Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 5. Tubingen: Mohr, 1985a [1931], pp.3-163._______. Platos dialektische Ethik - beim Wort genommen. In: Griechische Philosophie. t.3.  Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 7. Tubingen: Mohr, 1985c [1989], pp.121-127._______. Praktisches Wissen. In: Griechische Philosophie. t.1. Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 5. Tubingen: Mohr, 1985a [1930], pp.230-248._______. Wahrheit und Methode: Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik. In: Hermeneutik I. Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 1. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1990 [1960].GRONDIN, J. Einführung zu Gadamer. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000._______. Von Heidegger zu Gadamer: Unterwegs zur Hermeneutik. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft – WBG, 2001.HEIDEGGER, M. Sein und Zeit. 19. Faksimile-Ausgabe der 1. Ausgabe. Tübingen: Verlag, 2006 [1927].PLATÃO. Opera Platonis. Recognovit brevique adnotatione critica instruxit Ioannes Burnet. Scriptorum Classicorum. Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, v.1-6. Oxford: Clarendoniano Typographeo, 1900.///RORTY, R. A filosofia e o espelho da natureza. Rio de Janeiro: Relume-Dumará, 1994.ROHDEN, L. Filosofa enquanto Fenomenologia e Hermenêutica à luz da Carta VII de Platão. In: BOMBASSARO, L. C.; DALBOSCO, C. A.; KUIAVA, E. A., (org.). Pensar Sensível. Festscrift ao prof. Jayme Paviani. Caxias do Sul, RS: Educs, 2011, pp. 87-104._______. Filosofando com Gadamer e Platão: movimentos, momentos e método[s] da dialética. Dissertatio, 36 (2012), pp. 105-130. Disponível em: <http://dx.doi.org/10.15210/dissertatio.v36i0.8660> (acessado em 09.08.2018)._______. Hermenêutica e[m] resposta ao elogio da verdadeira filosofia da Carta Sétima de Platão. In: Kriterion, Belo Horizonte, v. 54, 127 (2013), p. 25-42. Disponível em: <http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-512X2013000100002&lng=en&nrm=iso > (acessado em 17.09.2018)._______. Filosofar com Gadamer e Platão: hermenêutica filosófica a partir da Carta Sétima. 1. ed. São Paulo: Annablume, 2018.SMITH, P. C. H.-G. Gadamer’s Heideggerian Interpretation of Plato. In: Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, Stockport, England, v. 12, 3 (1981), pp. 211–230. Disponível em: <https://doi.org/10.1080/00071773.1981.11007544> (acessado em 06.07.2018).VALENTIM, I. A Carta VII, o manifesto e a autobiografia política de Platão. In: Revista Opinião Filosófica, Porto Alegre, v. 3, 1 (2012), pp-60-72. Disponível em: <http://periodico.abavaresco.com.br/index.php/opiniaofilosofica/article/view/435> (acessado em 17.09.2018).WESTPHAL, M. A hermenêutica enquanto epistemologia. In: GRECO, J.; SOSA, E. (orgs.). Compêndio de Epistemologia. São Paulo: Loyola, 2008. pp. 645-676. 

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