Gadamer’s Hermeneutics: Between Phenomenology and Dialectic

308 Pages·2022·2.002 MB·English

by  Robert J. Dostal

GADAMER’S HERMENEUTICS
Northwestern University
Studies in Phenomenology
and
Existential Philosophy
General Editor Anthony J. Steinbock
G A D A M E R ’ S
H E R M E N E U T I C S
Between Phenomenology
and Dialectic
Robert J. Dostal
Northwestern University Press
Evanston, Illinois
Northwestern University Press
www.nupress.northwestern.edu
Copyright © 2022 by Northwestern University. Published 2022 by Northwestern
University Press. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Dostal, Robert J., author.
Title: Gadamer’s hermeneutics : between phenomenology and dialectic / 
Robert J. Dostal.
Other titles: Northwestern University studies in phenomenology & existential
philosophy.
Description: Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern University Press, 2022. | Series:
Northwestern University studies in phenomenology and existential philos-
ophy | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021034900 | ISBN 9780810144507 (paperback) | ISBN
9780810144514 (cloth) | ISBN 9780810144521 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Gadamer, Hans– Georg, 1900– 2002. | Hermeneutics.
Classification: LCC B3248.G34 D67 2022 | DDC 121.686— dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021034900
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments vii
List of Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Works ix
Introduction 3
1 Gadamer’s Ambivalence toward the Enlightenment Project 8
2 Humanism and Politics: Gadamer’s Civic Humanism
in the Face of Heidegger’s Anti- Humanism 55
3 Saving Plato from Platonism 87
4 From Bildung to Bild: Gadamer’s Aesthetics 98
5 Language and Understanding 119
6 Hermeneutics and Science 147
7 Between Phenomenology and Dialectic 175
Conclusion: The Conversation That We Are— Solidarity 195
Notes 199
Bibliography 271
Index 295

Preface and Acknowledgments
The publication in 1960 of Hans-G eorg Gadamer’s Truth and Method,
a treatment of philosophical hermeneutics, slowly elicited what be-
came a worldwide response, both negative and positive. Perhaps most
importantly, his exchanges with Habermas and Derrida drew the most
attention, but other exchanges, both direct and indirect, with philoso-
phers such as Leo Strauss and Thomas Seebohm were also important.
Gadamer’s death in 2002 prompted a large wave of publications about his
work. Though there is a long and large history of hermeneutics, a look at
most of the recent publications, especially in English, might give the im-
pression that hermeneutics means Gadamer. For example, the large ed-
ited volumes on hermeneutics by Blackwell’s (2016) and Routledge (2015)
place G adamer’s hermeneutics at the center, though these volumes also
deal with other philosophers relevant to the history and the contempo-
rary discussion of hermeneutics. Only recently with the publication of
The Cambridge Companion to Hermeneutics (ed. Michael Forster and Kristin
Gjesdal, 2019) and Kristin Gjesdal’s Herder’s Hermeneutics (2017) do we see
prominent accounts of hermeneutics in English that push Gadamer to
the side, almost as an aberration in the tradition of hermeneutics.
In this work I provide a comprehensive and critical account of
Gadamer’s accomplishment. Among other things, I attempt to mediate
between Gadamerian hermeneutics and the philological hermeneutics
of Forster and Gjesdal by way of reference to Thomas Seebohm’s phe-
nomenology of philology. I defend what I take to be the culminating
contribution of Gadamer’s hermeneutics— the civic humanism which is
at the heart of his enterprise.
This book has a long history and many debts that are too much
and too personal to be recounted here. Nonetheless, I am happy to ac-
knowledge my debt to the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (the
DAAD— the German Exchange Service), the Humboldt Foundation, and
Bryn Mawr College, whose generous support over the years bears fruit,
such as it is, here. I thank Professor Günter Figal (now emeritus) and the
Philosophisches Seminar at the Albert- Ludwigs University in Freiburg for
their repeated hospitality. I am grateful to Annegret and Bernd Becker,
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viii
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
who have provided me with a haven in the Black Forest for a good amount
of solitude and companionship.
I have been thinking about Gadamer and his hermeneutics since
I first met him as an undergraduate at Catholic University in the spring
semester of 1969, when as a visiting professor he gave a series of lectures
that were a development of his essay “The Phenomenological Movement”
(1963). In his autobiographical writing, Gadamer refers to this time as
his “second youth.” My early philosophy teachers provided an appropri-
ate setting for the encounter, and they set me on the path I still follow:
John Smolko, Thomas Prufer, and Robert Sokolowski. Some of my debt
to them is explicit in this book. The late Thomas Seebohm taught me
much that I am still digesting— in his teaching, his written work, our
conversations together, and his example. For the clarity of my writing,
such as it is, I am indebted to my wife, Kathleen, who never ceases to ask,
“So what does that mean?” and to my colleague, the late George Kline,
who read my early work with care and attention. Small summer confer-
ences in Heidelberg with Gadamer and similar meetings later in Freiburg
with hermeneutically minded colleagues (and without Gadamer) helped
shape and deepen my understanding of Gadamer and the contempo-
rary landscape of hermeneutics. The North American Society for Philo-
sophical Hermeneutics has been another venue for discussion. A part
of chapter 1 was developed from a talk at its annual meeting. The talk
was published in Research in Phenomenology 46 (2016): 337– 348: “Gadamer,
Kant, and the Enlightenment,” and it appears here, significantly revised,
as a part of the larger argument of chapter 1. Much of the same analysis
can also be found in my chapter “Gadamer’s Kant” in The Gadamerian
Mind (Routledge, 2021), edited by Theodore George and Gert- Jan van
der Heiden.
I have been lucky to know so many good philosophers. But in par-
ticular, I must acknowledge with gratitude my many conversations over
the years with Steve Salkever, Kathleen Wright, and Brice Wachterhauser.
Finally, I am grateful to Hans- Georg Gadamer, whose example answered
Plato’s question for me: “Who is the philosopher?”
Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Works
Works by Gadamer
BP/AP The Beginning of Philosophy/Der Anfang der Philosophie
EPH Hans- Georg Gadamer on Education, Poetry, and History
GR The Gadamer Reader
GW Gesammelte Werke (Gadamer’s Collected Works)
RB The Relevance of the Beautiful and Other Essays
“Ref” “Reflections on My Philosophical Journey”
TM Truth and Method
Other Frequently Cited Works
BT Being and Time (side pagination the same for the English translations
and the Gesamtausgabe, vol. 2 [7th edition, 1953])
GA Gesamtausgabe (Heidegger’s Complete Edition)
HUA Husserliana (Husserl’s complete works)
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