P1: FDJ/SPH P2: FDJ/ABE QC: FDJ CB415/Dostal CB415-FM October 18, 2001 14:49 This page intentionally left blank iv P1: FDJ/SPH P2: FDJ/ABE QC: FDJ CB415/Dostal CB415-FM October 18, 2001 14:49 the cambridge companion to GADAMER Each volume of this series of companions to major philosophers contains specially commissioned essays by an international team of scholars, together with a substantial bibliography, and will serve as a reference work for students and nonspecialists. One aim of the series is to dispel the intimidation such readers often feel when faced with the work of a difficult and challenging thinker. Hans-Georg Gadamer (b. 1900) is widely recognized as the lead- ing exponent of philosophical hermeneutics. His work has exerted a profound impact on contemporary philosophical and theological discourse and has shaped new modes of interpretation in the social sciences. The essays in this collection examine Gadamer’s biogra- phy, the core of hermeneutical theory, and the significance of his work for ethics, aesthetics, the social sciences, and theology. There is full consideration of Gadamer’s appropriation of Hegel, Heidegger, and the Greeks, as well as his relation to modernity, critical theory, and poststructuralism. New readers will find this the most convenient and accessible guide to Gadamer currently available. Advanced students and spe- cialists will find a conspectus of recent developments in the inter- pretation of Gadamer. i P1: FDJ/SPH P2: FDJ/ABE QC: FDJ CB415/Dostal CB415-FM October 18, 2001 14:49 ii P1: FDJ/SPH P2: FDJ/ABE QC: FDJ CB415/Dostal CB415-FM October 18, 2001 14:49 cambridge companions to philosophy: AQUINAS Edited by norman kretzmann and eleonore stump HANNAH ARENDT Edited by dana villa ARISTOTLE Edited by jonathan barnes AUGUSTINE Edited by eleonore stump and norman kretzmann BACON Edited by markku peltonen DESCARTES Edited by john cottingham EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHY Edited by a. a. long FEMINISM IN PHILOSOPHY Edited by miranda fricker and jennifer hornsby FOUCAULT Edited by gary gutting FREUD Edited by jerome neu GALILEO Edited by peter machamer GERMAN IDEALISM Edited by karl ameriks HABERMAS Edited by stephen k. white HEGEL Edited by frederick beiser HEIDEGGER Edited by charles guignon HOBBES Edited by tom sorell HUME Edited by david fate norton HUSSERL Edited by barry smith and david woodruff smith WILLIAM JAMES Edited by ruth anna putnam KANT Edited by paul guyer KIERKEGAARD Edited by alastair hannay and gordon marino LEIBNIZ Edited by nicholas jolley LOCKE Edited by vere chappell MALEBRANCHE Edited by stephen nadler MARX Edited by terrell carver MILL Edited by john skorupski NIETZSCHE Edited by bernd magnus and kathleen higgins OCKHAM Edited by paul vincent spade PLATO Edited by richard kraut PLOTINUS Edited by lloyd p. gerson ROUSSEAU Edited by patrick riley SARTRE Edited by christina howells SCHOPENHAUER Edited by christopher janaway SPINOZA Edited by don garrett WITTGENSTEIN Edited by hans sluga and david stern iii P1: FDJ/SPH P2: FDJ/ABE QC: FDJ CB415/Dostal CB415-FM October 18, 2001 14:49 iv P1: FDJ/SPH P2: FDJ/ABE QC: FDJ CB415/Dostal CB415-FM October 18, 2001 14:49 The Cambridge Companion to GADAMER Edited by Robert J. Dostal Bryn Mawr College v Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge , United Kingdom Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521801935 © Cambridge University Press 2002 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2002 isbn-13- 978-0-511-07186-7 eBook (EBL) isbn-10- 0-511-07186-8 eBook (EBL) isbn-13- 978-0-521-80193-5 hardback isbn-10- 0-521-80193-1 hardback isbn-13- 978-0-521-00041-3 paperback isbn-10- 0-521-00041-6 paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of s for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. P1: FDJ/SPH P2: FDJ/ABE QC: FDJ CB415/Dostal CB415-FM October 18, 2001 14:49 CONTENTS List of Contributors page ix Abbreviations xiii Introduction robert j. dostal 1 1 Gadamer: The Man and His Work robert j. dostal 13 2 Gadamer’s Basic Understanding of Understanding jean grondin 36 3 Getting it Right: Relativism, Realism, and Truth brice wachterhauser 52 4 Hermeneutics, Ethics, and Politics georgia warnke 79 5 The Doing of the Thing Itself: Gadamer’s Hermeneutic Ontology of Language g¨unter figal 102 6 Gadamer on the Human Sciences charles taylor 126 7 Lyric as Paradigm: Hegel and the Speculative Instance of Poetry in Gadamer’s Hermeneutics j. m. baker, jr. 143 vii P1: FDJ/SPH P2: FDJ/ABE QC: FDJ CB415/Dostal CB415-FM October 18, 2001 14:49 viii contents 8 Gadamer, the Hermeneutic Revolution, and Theology fred lawrence 167 9 Hermeneutics in Practice: Gadamer on Ancient Philosophy catherine h. zuckert 201 10 Gadamer’s Hegel robert b. pippin 225 11 Gadamer’s Relation to Heidegger and Phenomenology robert j. dostal 247 12 The Constellation of Hermeneutics, Critical Theory, and Deconstruction richard j. bernstein 267 Bibliography 283 Index 313 P1: FDJ/SPH P2: FDJ/ABE QC: FDJ CB415/Dostal CB415-FM October 18, 2001 14:49 CONTRIBUTORS j. m. baker teaches in the Liberal Arts division at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He has previously written on the ro- mantic literature of England and Europe, with special attention to the intersection of poetic discourse with the kind of long-standing philosophical issues addressed in the present essay. He is in the pro- cess of revising a book-length study of Holderlin:¨ Recursive Poetics: Holderlin¨ and the Tradition. richard j. bernstein is Vera List professor of philosophy and chair, New School for Social Research. His books include the follow- ing: Beyond Objectivism and Relativism; The New Constellation; Hannah Arendt and the Jewish Question; and Freud and the Legacy of Moses. He is currently working on a book dealing with conception of evil in modern thought. robert j. dostal is the Rufus M. Jones professor of philosophy and provost at Bryn Mawr College. He is co-editor of Phenomenol- ogy on Kant, German Idealism, Hermeneutics and Logic.Hehas published numerous articles on the German philosophical tradition including essays on Kant, Heidegger, Arendt, and Gadamer. gunter¨ figal is professor of philosophy at the University of Tubingen.¨ He is the author of Theodor W. Adorno: Das Naturschone¨ als spekulative Gedankenfigur (1977); Martin Heidegger: Phano-¨ menologie der Freiheit (1988/1991); Das Untier und die Liebe: Sieben platonische Essays (1991); Martin Heidegger zur Einfuhrung¨ (1992); Fur¨ eine Philosophie von Freiheit und Streit (1994); Der Sinn des Verstehens,(1996); and Nietzsche (1999). ix P1: FDJ/SPH P2: FDJ/ABE QC: FDJ CB415/Dostal CB415-FM October 18, 2001 14:49 x list of contributors jean grondin is professor of philosophy at the Universitede´ Montreal.´ His books include: Hermeneutische Wahrheit? Zum Wahrheitsbegriff Hans-Georg Gadamers (1982; 2nd ed. 1994); Le tour- nant dans la pensee´ de Martin Heidegger (1987); Kant et le problem de la philosophie: l’a priori (1989); Introduction to Philosophical Hermeneutics (1994); Sources of Hermeneutics (1995); Hans-Georg Gadamer Eine Biographie (1999); Einfuhrung¨ zu Gadamer (2000). fred lawrence is an associate professor in the theology depart- ment at Boston College. He did his doctoral thesis at the Univer- sity of Basel on Believing to Understand: The Hermeneutic Circle in Gadamer and Lonergan. For twenty-eight years he has directed the Lonergan Workshop at BC. He has been active in founding and teaching in the Perspectives Program at BC, taught at the law school, and been involved in the education of judges. He has published in a variety of philosophical and theological journals. Besides teaching the systematic theology of the Trinity, his areas of expertise and in- terest include theology as hermeneutical, method in theology, and theology in a political mode. robert pippin is the Raymond W. and Martha Hilpert Gruner Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought, the department of philosophy, and the College, and he is the chair of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. He writes about the German philosophical tradition, and is the author of several books on Kant and Hegel, on the nature of European moder- nity, and articles and reviews on similar topics. His most recent book is about literature, Henry James and Modern Moral Life. In addition to his work on the philosophies of Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche, Pro- fessor Pippin has published work on theories of self-consciousness, the nature of conceptual change, and the problem of freedom. charles taylor is professor emeritus of philosophy at McGill University. His books include Sources of the Self, the Malaise of Modernity, and Philosophical Arguments. georgia warnke is professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. She is the author of Gadamer: Hermeneutics, Tradition and Reason; Justice and Interpretation; and Legitimate Differences: Interpretation in the Abortion Controversy and other Public Debates. P1: FDJ/SPH P2: FDJ/ABE QC: FDJ CB415/Dostal CB415-FM October 18, 2001 14:49 list of contributors xi brice wachterhauser is Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. He is the author of Beyond Being: Gadamer’s Post- Platonic Hermeneutical Ontology (1999) and editor of Hermeneu- tics and Truth (1994), Phenomenology and Skepticism (1996), and Hermeneutics and Modern Philosophy (1986).