Hermeneutics is an art or trend dedicated to interpreting texts, especially sacred writings and philosophical and artistic texts. Hans-Georg Gadamer was a German philosopher who renewed this trend with his contributions.

Gadamer was a disciple of Heidegger, another German thinker, considered the most influential of the 20th century. In this article we will see a brief biography of Hans-Georg Gadamer and a summary of his contributions, especially in the field of hermeneutics, philosophy and aesthetics.

Hans-Georg Gadamer: biography of this philosopher

Hans-Georg Gadamer was a German philosopher, born in Marburg in 1900 and died in Heidelberg in 2002. He graduated with a doctoral thesis in philosophy in 1922. Later, in 1933, he taught aesthetics and ethics in his hometown of Kiel and again in Marburg.

In the latter city, Marburg, Gadamer was appointed Professor Extraordinary in 1937 and two years later obtained a professorship at the University of Leipzig. He then moved to the universities of Frankfurt and Heidelberg, where he succeeded Karl Jaspers as professor of philosophy. In 1968 he became Professor Emeritus.

Hans-Georg Gadamer is known for his essays in three outstanding fields: the history of philosophy, the philosophy of history and aesthetics (he studies the essence and perception of beauty).

Intellectual development

Truth and method. Elements of a philosophical hermeneutic (1960) was his most important work, in which he set the presuppositions and objectives of the hermeneutic current (technique or method of interpretation of texts). This current affirms that there is no such thing as the world, but rather various historical meanings of “world”. However, although this current implies a great relativism, Hans-Georg Gadamer alludes in his work to a possible communication and expression of a meaning.

In this work, the author’s hermeneutic philosophy and most relevant work is systematically presented. It shows the influence of Heidegger’s hermeneutics of being and Wilhelm Dilthey’s philosophy.

The history of truth that Hans-Georg Gadamer reconstructs in his work is marked by the famous philosopher Descartes , from the concept of “adaequatio”; this means that truth is in fact a method to achieve the proper correspondence between facts and propositions. Gadamer, however, opposes such a position and describes the real possibilities of the human experience of truth.

Hermeneutic principles

Hans-Georg Gadamer elaborates a series of hermeneutic principles that go beyond philosophy, and that can be applied to different disciplines such as literary criticism or sociology . According to the author, the search for truth requires a redefinition of hermeneutics; according to him, this current goes beyond the interpretation of texts and includes a reflection that is indispensable for understanding the world.

Hans-Georg Gadamer founds the School of Hermeneutics and states that the interpretation of a text must avoid the arbitrariness and limitations that arise from mental habits, and that we must focus our gaze on the things themselves, on the texts themselves. According to Gadamer, whenever we approach a text, we do so on the basis of a project and with some prior idea of what is being done there.

Aesthetic experience

Hans-Georg Gadamer also spoke of aesthetic experience, according to which from this “one can glimpse a circumstance of truth in which the very person of experience is modified”.

Thus, Gadamer understands, unlike other philosophical theories where truth is identified with the knowledge of the positive sciences, that the truth of experiences arises from people in contact with works of art, history or personal dialogue . According to this philosopher, in the aesthetic experience there is a dissolution of the perceiving subject and the object (the work of art). This experience breaks the subject-object dichotomy.

On the other hand, the author affirms that the aesthetic experience is carried out by means of a swaying movement in which the work and the subject that enjoys it move in the same direction. For example, in the contemplation of a work of art, the viewer is subjected to the vicissitudes of the plot, and thus is introduced into the work itself, while the work “operates” on itself. This is defined by Hans-Georg Gadamer as play.

Other works and relationship with other authors

Hans-Georg Gadamer also wrote other works, such as The Problem of Historical Consciousness (1963), Small Writings (1967) and Dialogue and Dialectics (1980), a compendium of essays on Plato’s dialogues.

On the other hand, throughout his life and professional career, he argued with thinkers such as Jacques Derrida and Jürgen Habermas . Riccardo Dottori, an Italian philosopher, published his conversations with Gadamer in a work entitled L’ultimo dio. Lezioni sul XX Secolo ; the edition of this work was published in German in 2002, weeks before Hans-Georg Gadamer’s fort.

Bibliographic references:

Hahn, L. and Drechsler, W. (1998). The philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer. Trames, 2(4), 338-351.
Malpas, J. (2003). Hans-Georg Gadamer. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.