The Beginning of Knowledge

by Hans-Georg Gadamer

The essays presented here function as a companion volume to Hans-Georg Gadamer's The Beginning of Philosophy (Continuum, 1998). Together, they represent the only two extended publications on the pre-Socratics in Gadamer's entire corpus. As the word 'knowledge' (Wissen) in the title suggests, here Gadamer is interested not so much in the origins of philosophy per se as in those of knowledge in general-everything, that is, that we call 'science' and the Germans call 'Wissenschaft.' Whereas The Beginning of Philosophy dealt with the inception of philosophical inquiry by focusing on the history of the reception and interpretation of Parmenides' didactic poem, The Beginning of Knowledge, which brings together nearly all of Gadamer's previously published (but never before translated) essays on the Presocratics, casts a wider net. Beginning with two hermeneutical and philological investigations of the Heraclitus fragments that are similar in scope to the previous analyses of Parmenides ("On the Tradition of Heraclitus," from 1974, and "Heraclitus Studies," from 1990), he then moves on to one of his earliest pieces, a discussion of the Greek atomists ("Ancient Atomic Theory," 1935) and a more recent treatment of the Presocratic cosmologists ("Plato and Presocratic Cosmology," 1964). In the last two essays, Gadamer puts the previous chapters in perspective by elaborating on the profound debt that modern scientific thought owes to the Greek philosophical tradition ("Greek Philosophy and Modern Thought," 1978, and "Natural Science and the Concept of Nature," 1994/95).

Genres: Philosophy

Hardcover

First published December 1, 2001

About the author

Hans-Georg Gadamer was born February 11, 1900 in Marburg, Germany.
(Arabic: هانز جورج غادامير)

Gadamer showed an early aptitude for studies in philosophy and after receiving his doctoral degree in 1922 he went on to work directly under Martin Heidegger for a period of five years. This had a profound and lasting effect on Gadamer's philosophical progression.

Gadamer was a teacher for most of his life, and published several important works: Truth and Method is considered his magnum opus. In this work Heidegger's notion of hermeneutics is seen clearly: hermeneutics is not something abstract that one can pick up and leave at will, but rather is something that one does at all times. To both Heidegger and to Gadamer, hermeneutics is not restricted to texts but to everything encountered in one's life.

Gadamer is most well-known for the notion of a horizon of interpretation, which states that one does not simply interpret something, but that in the act of interpretation one becomes changed as well. In this way, he takes some of the notions from Heidegger's Being and Time, notably that which Heidegger had to say about prejudgements and their role in interpreting and he turns them into a more positive notion: Gadamer sees every act and experience (which is a hermeneutical experience to a Gadamerian) as a chance to call into question and to change those prejudgements, for in the horizon of interpretation those prejudgements are not forever fixed.

Gadamer is considered the most important writer on the nature and task of hermeneutics of the 20th century, which was still widely considered a niche within Biblical studies until Truth and Method was widely read and discussed.

He died at the age of 102 in Heidelberg (March, 2002).

Reviews

[I-kai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a "must read," I don't think, but Gadamer still has some helpful things to say when one is thinking about Heraclitus and ancient atomism

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lightning strike steers all. Heraclitus means by this instead of a steady hand in history we have a sharp, sudden movement. Though he is known as the philosopher of flux, he doesn’t reject unity. Rather, if Hegel is to be believed, within Heraclitus’s unity is a coincidence of opposites. The One holds in tension the unity of opposites. Psyche = life = the total that unfolds itself (Gadamer 79).

What is nature? What is it that is permanent in this continual flux of things that grants rules and order and reliability (88)? The atomists thought their view necessary because “unlimited divisibility would let the corporeal pass away into the void” (93-94).

Gadamer suggests the term “object” helps explain both Greek and modern philosophy (121). The problem is there are a host of terms that are not easily explained by the concept of “object/objectivity.” Terms like “freedom” for example. Or take “language.” Is language a mere instrument or is it a horizon? The Greeks had words for “tongue” and “logos,” but not so much language.

Conclusion:

Gadamer's Truth and Method is a masterpiece of hermeneutics and is one of the great books of the 20th century. This book, sadly, is not. Gadamer's material is interesting, but when one reads the chapters one is not entirely sure of the point.