Hans-Georg Gadamer, born Feb. 11, 1900 in Marburg, Germany, is best known for his important contribution to hermeneutics through his major work, Wahrheit und Methode (Truth and Method). His system of philosophical hermeneutics is a response, through an exploration of historicity, language, and art, to Wilhelm Dilthey, Edmund Husserl, and Martin Heidegger. As Gadamer himself tells us–
As I was attempting to develop a philosophical hermeneutic, it followed from the previous history of hermeneutics that the interpretive (verstehenden) 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 our inherited and acquired historical education–aesthetic consciousness and historical 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 (Philosophical Apprenticeships, 1977).
Gadamer is the son of a chemistry professor (who had hopes of Gadamer following in his footsteps). In 1918, he began his university studies at Breslau, moving on to Marburg in 1919 where he earned his first doctorate at the age of 22 under the Plato scholar, Paul Natorp. During this time, he also “stood under the influence” of Nicolai Hartmann.
After meeting Martin Heidegger in 1923, he served as Heidegger’s assistant while continuing course work in philosophy and philology. In 1928 he completed a second doctorate (again on Plato) under Heidegger’s direction. He remained in Marburg as a Privatdozent [part-time member with little salary] teaching classical philosophy until he got his call to Kiel. After a brief stint at Kiel (1934-35), he returned to Marburg where he was honored as “extraordinary professor” in 1937.
In 1939 he moved on to Leipzig, serving as rector in 1946-47. In the fall of 1947 he returned to teaching and research by accepting a call to Frankfurt am Main. In 1949 he was asked to take on Karl Jasper’s chair in Heidelberg where he remained until becoming professor emeritus in 1968. It was while at Heidelberg that his teaching and research “reached a first conclusion in Truth and Method.”
Upon retirement he was invited to spend semesters in residence at major universities in the United States including Vanderbilt, Catholic University of America, University of Dallas, Boston College, as well as McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario,Canada. During the decades after his retirement he has continued, until recently, to lecture widely in the United States, Canada, and other countries.
The first book-length definitive biography of Hans-Georg Gadamer has just been published. By Jean Grondin, it is entitled Hans-Georg Gadamer: Eine Biographie (Tuebingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999.). Another good source is Gadamer’s own intellectual autobiography, Philosophical Apprenticeships (translated by Robert R. Sullivan. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1985). He also has a shorter autobiography (“Reflections on My Philosophical Journey,” translated by Richard E. Palmer) in The Philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer (The Library of Living Philosophers Volume XXIV, Peru, IL: Open Court Publishing Co., 1997).
(The short quotes in the above text are from “Reflections.”)
