Gadamer And The Legacy Of German Idealism

The philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer interests a wide audience that spans the traditional distinction between European (continental) and Anglo-American (analytic) philosophy. Yet one of the most important and complex aspects of his work - his engagement with German Idealism - has received comparatively little attention. In this book, Kristin Gjesdal uses a close analysis and critical investigation of Gadamer's Truth and Method (1960) to show that his engagement with Kant, Hegel, and Schleiermacher is integral to his conception of hermeneutics. She argues that a failure to engage with this aspect of Gadamer's philosophy leads to a misunderstanding of the most pressing problem of post-Heideggerian hermeneutics: the tension between the commitment to the self-criticism of reason, on the one hand, and the turn towards the meaning-constituting authority of tradition, on the other. Her study provides an illuminating assessment of both the merits and the limitations of Gadamer's thought. Review: ...This work is an intelligent contribution to historical debates in hermeneutics and phenomenology... [Recommended]... --P. Amato, Drexel University, Choice ....Kristin Gjesdal's book fits neatly into this newly-discovered interest in Gadamer's philosophy.... lucidly written....her book offers a variety of critical insights. It can be recommended to every scholar of Gadamer's philosophy who is interested in both historical reconstructions and systematic arguments. --Christian Lotz, Michigan State University, Journal of the History of Philosophy In this often insightful and well-argued book, Kristin Gjesdal focuses valuable attention on Gadamer's treatment of major philosophers of German Idealism and Romanticism in a critical consideration of some of the central ideas of philosophical hermeneutics... --Peter Amato, Drexel University, Research in Phenomenology