Erfahrung und Erkenntnis

When we read Truth and Method, two ideas become very clear. First, Gadamer has a very critical approach to modern science. He does not accept the scientific claim to be the sole arbiter of truth and demonstrates that genuine experience can never be abstractly repeated. Second, Gadamer advocates for the de-subjectivization of language, thought, and understanding. He believes that one of the major difficulties of modern philosophy is its subjectivization of those human phenomena. According to Gadamer, language, thought, and understanding are by no means the results of an act of the subject, but rather genuine collective constructions. The knowledge and experiences available to humans are not something absolute. All knowledge and experiences occur within a hermeneutical situation that already determines what we can experience and recognize. It is this fundamental finitude that Gadamer aims to represent in Truth and Method. The target audience is students of the humanities and philosophy.