Gadamer's Hermeneutics

Essay # 62535

Philosophy > Epistemology
Philosophy > Logic

An overview of Hans-Georg Gadamer's approach to hermeneutics, summarizing his main ideas and important points regarding interpretation and understanding.

832 words () | 5 sources | MLA | 2005 South Africa

Paper Summary:

Hermeneutics is the art of understanding or interpretation. This paper discusses hermeneutics in terms of Gadamer's book, "Hermeneutics, Tradition and Reason." It attempts to define hermeneutics and discusses other ideas that Gadamer suggests are important, such as horizon, subjectivism and dialogical structure of understanding. It also examines a critique by German philosopher, Jurgen Habarmas against Gadamer and his hermeneutics.

From the Paper:

"Gadamer believes that our understanding of beings and things should not be limited to just the objective conditions that make knowledge possible (as Kant had originally thought), but instead and more importantly, a long process of interpretation, which is in fact neither subjective or objective as it involves the interaction of both the individual or subject and the object to be interpreted. The object in question could be an image, ritual or anything that can be interpreted. The idea of interpretation as a necessary tool for understanding is important for other philosophers such as Heidegger who also believed that language becomes central to Dasein's existence (to be there). "