Dolor

by Hans-Georg Gadamer

Este texto de Hans-Georg Gadamer fue la última conferencia pública que dio en su vida. Al describir el dolor como una tarea de vida, Gadamer formuló en dicha ponencia una verdadera provocación para el público del colegio de médicos. Es tarea, lejos de ser un defecto o una deformación del individuo con padecimientos, se acerca más bien estructuralmente a aquello que ocupó a Gadamer toda su vida: la hermenéutica. Así, el dolor físico es visto no como ni algo para evadir a toda costa, sino precisamente como una parte sustancial de la vida para confrontar su acechanza.

69 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2020

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

[Luxy Rodríguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muy corto, como dice en la contra portada, es una introducción y una muy corta charla para llevarnos a una conversación más profunda acerca del dolor. Lo adquirí a un costo que no considero es acorde a la profundidad, esperaba más. Sin embargo es interesante el planteamiento sobre como se aborda, se entiende y se maneja el dolor en los tiempos modernos.

[Roberto Rivadeneyra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente reflexión filosófica sobre el dolor y el papel del médico en la enfermedad.

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

"La verdadera dimensión de la vida se vislumbra en el dolor, cuando no nos dejamos vencer por él."