The Gadamer Reader: A Bouquet of the Later Writings

Topics in Historical Philosophy

by Hans-Georg Gadamer, Richard E. Palmer (Editor)

Gadamer Lesebuch was originally published in German in 1997 and was compiled and edited by Jean Grondin in consultation with Hans-Georg Gadamer. A cross section of writings by one of the twentieth century's greatest philosophers, the volume begins with an autobiographical sketch and culminates in a conversation with Jean Grondin that looks back over a lifetime of productive philosophical work.
The Gadamer Reader: A Bouquet of the Later Writings richly conveys the scope and depth of Gadamer's thought, including his work in hermeneutics, aesthetics, and practical philosophy and his essays on Plato, Hegel, and Heidegger. The sixteen essays contained in the German edition are augmented here by three others: Gadamer's last essay on Derrida, Hermeneutics Tracking the Trace (1994), and two writings on practical philosophy. In addition, Palmer offers introductory remarks before each essay, explaining its importance in the context of Gadamer's writings and defining its essential terms. Palmer makes this critically important philosopher clear and accessible to English-speaking readers.

Genres: Philosophy

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

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).