Hans-Georg Gadamer and Hermeneutics. Biographical Timeline

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1 Anastasia 1 Jess Anastasia 4 December 2003 Prof. Bailey Intro To Western Philosophy Hans-Georg Gadamer and Hermeneutics Biographical Timeline Span Between Events Age Year What Happened 1900 Born in Marburg, Germany 2 yr Gadamer s father was appointed a full professor and Director of the pharmaceutical institute at Breslau Gadamer moved to Breslau 7 yr Gadamer started attending school 9 yr Began studying at the University of Breslau 1 yr Returned to Marburg with his family but continued to study at Breslau 3 yr Graduated 1 yr Married Frida Kratz 1 yr Began studying classical philogy 4 yr submitted a habilitation dissertation about Plato 0 yr Gadamer was appointed a junior professor at the University of Marburg 3 yr His habilitation, Plato s Dialectical Ethics, was published 3 yr Acquired a temporary professorship at the University of Kiel 3 yr became a full professor at the University of Marburg 2 yr Became Director of the Philosophical Institute at the University of Leipzig 2 yr began a lecture tour to Paris 3 yr Began lecture tour to Portugal 1 yr Became dean of Philosophical Faculty at the University of Leipzig 1 yr became rector of the University 1 yr appointed a professorship at the University of Frankfurt/Main 2 yr journeyed to Argentina for lectures 1 yr Married Kate Lekebusch; Resolved to work out a Hermeneutics Theory 1 yr became Chairperson of the Cusanus commission of the Heidelberger Academy until yr Publication of Truth and Method 8 yr Retirement from full-time teaching; Tours the USA 1 yr Tour of the USA

2 Anastasia 2 2 yr received the Knight of the Order of Merit award, Germany s highest academic award 6 yr toured the USA as well as Canada 4 yr Held a debate with Jacques Derrida 4 yr began writing and collecting his works 11 yr became honorary Doctor at the University of Leipzig 5 yr died in Heidelberg on March 13 th World Events Timeline Year Age of Gadamer What happened the first successful airplane flight Albert Einstein introduces his theory of relativity the NAACP was founded in New York City the Republic of China was founded the 16 th Amendment was added to the US Constitution World War I begins World War I ends; the Treaty of Versailles The International Court of Justice is established in The Hague, Netherlands Mohandas Gandhi emerges as a leader in India Benito Mussolini forms a fascist government in Italy The Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler tries to declare a new government for Germany but fails Winnie the Pooh is first published Charles Lindbergh completes his first solo transatlantic flight The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed by 15 nations Penicillin was discovered Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany Social Security goes into effect in the USA Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the Olympics in Berlin, Germany World War II begins when Germany invades Poland The U.S. enters WWII The Yalta Conference takes place; the US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; WWII ends; Nuremberg Trials the first electronic digital computer is introduced; apartheid system is introduced in South Africa Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier in Major League Baseball Gandhi is assassinated; Israel becomes a nation The Korean War begins the first nuclear powered submarine is launched by the US; the first polio vaccine is declared safe Sputnik I is launched by the USSR Fidel Castro takes control of Cuba; the Vietnam War begins The Bay of Pigs invasion takes place; the Berlin Wall is constructed the Cuban missile crisis takes place President Kennedy is assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. wins the Nobel Peace Prize

3 Anastasia Malcolm X is assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy are assassinated Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first people to set foot on the moon Eleven Israeli athletes are killed by terrorists in Munich, Germany Watergate; Arab oil embargo causes an energy crisis the Helsinki Accords are finalized; OPEC is formed Mount Saint Helens erupts the US Center for Disease Control publishes first report on AIDS scientists discover that the ozone is being lost from the Earth s atmosphere in Antarctica the Iran-Contra Affair Tiananmen Square; the Berlin Wall is taken down East and West Germany are reunified Apartheid in South Africa ends; Iraq is defeated in the Gulf War; the USSR breaks into independent states; end of the cold war; the European Union is created the Rodney King incident in LA the first internet browser is introduced, Mosaic Nelson Mandela becomes the first black president of South Africa Oklahoma City bombing; conflict in Yugoslavia ends; Israeli Prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated Scottish researchers clone a sheep Protestants and Catholics in Ireland reach a peacekeeping agreement; the House of Representatives Impeaches Bill Clinton the Euro is introduced as a common currency in Europe Gadamer and Hermeneutics Hans-Georg Gadamer was one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. He expanded the development of hermeneutics into an art form; an idea that everyone can use. Gadamer s main focus in philosophy was hermeneutics so it will be the main focus of this paper. Now that hermeneutics can be applied to many subject areas such as conversation, art, and literature. I will explain and discuss the major areas where hermeneutics has had the greatest impact. What is hermeneutics? If everyone can use it, how come not everyone has heard of hermeneutics? Long before Gadamer there was hermeneutics. The original purpose of hermeneutics was to help scholars interpret, or understand, the bible. This was known as

4 Anastasia 4 biblical exegesis, or a critical analysis of the bible. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries hermeneutics began to develop into more of a commonplace method. It was now being used on not just the bible, but other texts as well. Hermeneutics became the method proper to the recovery of meaning. (Stanford) Hermeneutics was then taken further in that it became a method for recovering the meaning that is crucial to understanding the human and historical sciences. This was many theorists way of making these properly scientific. Heidegger, who was one of Gadamer s mentors, took hermeneutics even further stating that it was a way to understand what was always already given over to that, which is to be understood. (Stanford) Than along came Gadamer. Using Heidegger s insight in his development of hermeneutics, Gadamer further developed hermeneutics to account for the nature of understanding. He expanded hermeneutics to include conversation, art, and literature. Hermeneutics is the art of interpretation. The hermeneutical process is regarded as involving a complex interaction between the interpreting subject and the interpreting object. This means that in order to fully interpret anything you must have some background in what you are interpreting. I will explain this later in the essay. In order to understand something you have to involve your past experiences, or prejudices. In Gadamer s Truth and Method, he calls this the prejudicial character. Gadamer argues that our subjectivity, or pre-judgments, are what open us up to our understanding, rather than close us off. Gadamer believes that our prejudices allow us to open our understanding of the matter at issue in a way that our prejudices are capable of being changed. The prejudicial character means that when we understand something we are involved in a dialogue that includes both our own understanding and the

5 Anastasia 5 understanding of the matter. Our prejudices are than learned and they can become the focus of our questioning of the matter. Gadamer strongly believes that languages is at the center of all understanding. He calls one s own knowledge, experiences, history, and prejudices our horizon. Gadamer uses this as a basis for conversation, specifically with another person in a debate, as well as in translation. The intimate unity of language and thought is the premise from which that philosophy of language starts. (Gadamer) A conversation takes place, between people, in which an agreement of ideas, about some matter, is trying to be reached. We use our horizons to reach this agreement. Gadamer views language as mediating understanding. He also believes that understanding and conversation involve an agreement; he argues that there must be a common language between the two. While there may be a common language between understanding and conversation, there is not always a common language between two people. This is where the problem lies. Gadamer uses horizons further in this aspect. The more a conversation takes place the better the understanding, and the closer an agreement can be reached. Gadamer argues that language is the universal horizon of the hermeneutical experience. He also claims that the hermeneutical experience itself is universal. Gadamer believes that with art you must have a past experience with it in order to interpret it. For example, if you are trying to interpret a painting you must have past experiences with painting in order to fully understand it. Otherwise it has no meaning and it is just another piece of artwork. When I say art I mean Gadamer s definition of art. He looked at art as paintings, sculptures, and photographs, but also included drama, or plays, as well as literature. In Gadamer s The Relevance of the Beautiful, he discusses

6 Anastasia 6 art as being hermeneutical. He believes that beauty is central to understanding the nature of art. In Truth and Method, Gadamer discusses that the beautiful is obviously present to us. Gadamer explores the relationship between the beautiful and the true. Gadamer has three main ideas that appear in The Relevance of The Beautiful; art as play, symbol, and festival. The notion of art as play is central to Gadamer s idea of the experience of art and the understanding of art. Art as play mainly includes theater. He views this as art being transformed into a structure. Art as symbol means that there is more to art than what is literally present. Through arts symbolic character as related to the world, as well as our own world there arises a totality. Gadamer calls this art as imitation, or mimesis. Gadamer sees art as a festival; a combination of play and symbol. We experience art, not as a single vision, but as a dwelling upon the art. Gadamer calls this fulfilled time. He calls this a festival because like a festival, fulfilled time takes us out of ordinary time. When Gadamer talks about art you have to keep in mind that he believes art as truth. Heidegger, his mentor, stated that truth was not just correctness but rather an unconcealment. By this he means that truth is not just a property of statements as they stand in relation to the world, but rather an even or process in and through which both the things of the world and what is said about them come to be revealed at one time the possibility of correctness arises on the basis of just such unconcealment. (Stanford) Truth is understood to be the unconcealment that can allow something to appear and this makes possible that truth and falsity of certain statements. This arises on the basis of a constant interaction between unconcealment and concealment.

7 Anastasia 7 Gadamer connects this idea of truth with art in two ways. The first is the actual connection with art. The second, the focus on truth itself as disclosure. By using these two aspects, Gadamer created an alternative to subjectivism when viewing art. He connected the ideas of dialogue and practicality with hermeneutics. Gadamer takes play as the basic clue ontological, or the essence of being, structure of art. He emphasized the way in which play is not a form of disengaged, disinteretested exercise of subjectivity, but is rather something that has its own order and structure to which one is given over. (Stanford) This idea of truth is what Gadamer works out in his book Truth and Method. I will now give my take on Gadamer and hermeneutics. I have to admit that when I read about hermeneutics and Gadamer, I was interested. After doing a small amount of research I felt lost. But as I was winding down the research and began to write some thoughts down, I finally began to understand hermeneutics. As I was researching I found myself asking questions out loud. Why would Gadamer want to develop a philosophical hermeneutics? Why would he want to relate it to art and conversation? I will share with you a quote from Gadamer s book entitled Philosophical Apprenticeships, which was published in As I was attempting to develop a philosophical hermeneutic, it followed from the previous history of hermeneutics that the interpretive sciences provided my starting point. But to these was added a hitherto neglected supplement. I am referring to the experience of art. For both art and the historical sciences are modes of experiencing in which our own understanding of existence comes directly into play My starting point was thus the critique of Idealism and its Romantic traditions. It was clear to me that the forms of consciousness of over inherited and acquired historical education aesthetics consciousness and historical

8 Anastasia 8 consciousness presented alienated forms of our true historical being. The primordial experiences that are transmitted through art and history are not to be grasped from the points of view of these forms of consciousness. I think that interpretation in itself is not exactly philosophy. The thinking that it involved in interpretation is what would be considered philosophical. Philosophical hermeneutics does not necessarily mean that it is philosophy. If you re-word it to hermeneutical philosophy it becomes a way or manner of doing philosophy, which is easier to understand. I agree with Gadamer s work in expanding Heidegger s work on truth to give it an application. Applying truth to art, as well as art to truth, gives the art more meaning. It allows art to open up a whole new world to its viewers. Art will than take on a particular appearance within the world it was created rather then it being a part of the world. The artwork has become central to determine the experience of art. The experience of art is revealed because of they way it is concealed. According to Gadamer this is what opens up the possibility of understanding. Gadamer s work on hermeneutics allowed him to become the forerunner in Twentieth Century hermeneutic thought. He expanded the definition of hermeneutic philosophy and changed the way many philosophers thought about the world, especially about art. He was a champion of conversation and loved to discuss his work. Not only does Gadamer work with Heidegger s work, he redirects hermeneutics to give it new applications and new meaning.

9 Anastasia 9 Works Cited "Defusing Gadamer's Horizons." Premise II (1995). 05 Oct < Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics. MIT. 10 Oct < 871/subsection3_4_2.html>. "Gadamer, Art, and Play." (1987). 10 Oct < Gadamer Biography. 05 Oct < "Hans-Georg Gadamer." 3 Mar Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 04 Oct < "hermeneutics." Philosophical Dictionary. 10 Oct < Philosophical Apprenticeships. Cambridge: MIT P, "Philosophical Hermeneutics and Its Meaning for Philosophy." Philosophy Today. May 1991: ProQuest. 10 Oct Keyword: Philosophical Hermeneutics. "Questioning the Past." The Chronicle of Higher Education. 18 July 2003: ProQuest. 07 Oct Keyword: Hans-Georg Gadamer. The Relevance of The Beautiful and Other Essays. New York: Cambridge UP, "Timeline." Encarta Encyclopedia. 05 Oct < Truth and Method. New York: n.p., 1990.