Gadamer's transformation of hermeneutics : from Dilthey to Heidegger
Abstract
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to show how Gadamer's hermeneutics synthesizes
the insights of both Heidegger and Dilthey in order to introduce a new hermeneutics.
Gadamer's hermeneutics is based not only on the priority of ontology, as Heidegger
insists, and neither is it only a product of life which can be objectively understood
through study and rigorous method, as Dilthey suggests. For Gadamer, hermeneutics is
the bringing together of ontology in terms of history. By this synthesis Gadamer not only
places himself within the context of a Lebensphilosophie, but also shows that it is within
language that Being can be disclosed according to a lived context. Throughout this paper
the philosophies ofDilthey and Heidegger are explicated within a historical context as to
bring out how, and why, Gadamer sees the need to surpass these philosophies. Through
Gadamer's philosophy of play and the game, language, the dialogical model, application,
and the fusion of horizons we can see how Gadamer's critique and questioning of these
two philosophy leads to his new hermeneutics. Special attention is paid to the role in
which these two contrasting philosophies were used to complement each other in the
product of Gadamer' s philosophical hermeneutics as it is presented in his major work
Truth andMethod. For Gadamer, the task of understanding is never complete. Therefore,
his hermeneutics remains a dynamic structure with which we can always question the
past and our traditions. This paper seeks to show his philosophical movements within
these questions