Philosophical Hermeneutics

Professor Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics seeks to study the fundamental conditions underlying the phenomenon of understanding in all its modes, scientific and nonscientific alike. Its field of application extends to any encounter with meanings that are not immediately understandable but require interpretative effort. In the first seven essays of this volume, Gadamer, who draws primarily upon the thought of Heidegger and Husserl, approaches the question of the fundamental conditions of understanding by examining such phenomena as language, the nature of the social and historical sciences, and the dominance of science and technology in contemporary culture. The last six essays concentrate on the immediate background of philosophical hermeneutics: phenomenology and existential philosophy. Gadamer's examination of "The Phenomenological Movement" makes available for the first time in English one of the best introductions to contemporary phenomenology. Three of the essays offer an important interpretation of the development of Heidegger's philosophy by the most distinguished of Heidegger's students. --