Gadamer

Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002) was a German philosopher best known for developing philosophical hermeneutics, a school emphasizing interpretation as a fundamental mode of human understanding. A student of Martin Heidegger, Gadamer extended phenomenology into the humanities and social sciences and taught at the University of Heidelberg for much of his career.

Gadamer argued that understanding is not achieved through universal methods or objective detachment but through dialogue within historically conditioned traditions. Central to his view is the hermeneutical circle: preconceptions are revised as one engages with texts or others, leading to a fusion of horizons between the interpreter’s standpoint and the subject matter. He stressed language as the medium of meaning and held that truth emerges through interpretation rather than by accessing isolated facts. The concept of prejudice, in Gadamer’s sense, refers to prior perspectives that shape understanding and can be transformed through reflective dialogue.

His major work, Wahrheit und Methode (Truth and Method) (1960), argues that the humanities gain authority from historically grounded practices of interpretation rather than a single universal method. Gadamer’s thought influenced theology, literary theory, history, and the social sciences, contributing to debates about objectivity, tradition, and the role of the reader in meaning-making. While critics have challenged aspects of his emphasis on tradition and his ambivalence toward methodological neutrality, his hermeneutical approach remains influential in contemporary interpretive disciplines.