Truth And Method

Description

By (author) Gadamer Hans-Georg

:
Truth and Method is a landmark work of 20th century thought which established Hans Georg-Gadamer as one of the most important philosophical voices of the 20th Century. In this book, Gadamer established the field of ‘philosophical hermeneutics”: exploring the nature of knowledge, the book rejected traditional quasi-scientific approaches to establishing cultural meaning that were prevalent after the war. In arguing the ‘truth” and ‘method” acted in opposition to each other, Gadamer examined the ways in which historical and cultural circumstance fundamentally influenced human understanding. It was an approach that would become hugely influential in the humanities and social sciences and remains so to this day in the work of Jurgen Habermas and many others.

Table of contents:
Translator”s PrefaceIntroductionForewordPart I: The Question of Truth as it Emerges in the Experience of Art1. Transcending the Aesthetic Dimension2. The Ontology of the Work of Art and its Hermeneutic SignificancePart II: The Extension of the Question of Truth to Understanding in the Human Sciences3. Historical Preparation4. Elements of a Theory of Hermeneutic ExperiencePart III: The Ontological Shift of Hermeneutics Guided by Language5. Language and HermeneuticsAppendices and SupplementsAfterwordSubject IndexAuthor Index.

Review quote:
Truth and Method is a landmark work of 20th century thought…[it] is one of the two or three most important works of this century on the philosophy of humanistic studies…Truth and Method reinforces an insight that is threatened with oblivion in our swiftly changing age…The volume is Gadamer”s magnum opus, the comprehensive and integrated statement of his rich and penetrating reflections. The translators have rendered Truth and Method with accuracy, which helps contemporary American readers understand Gadamer more fully. The material is powerful…The translation is readable and often powerfully eloquent as Gadamer”s German, providing a bridge, not an obstacle, between Gadamer and his readers.

Review quote:
Gadamer’s Truth and Method is a seminal work in the field of hermeneutics, and a must read for anyone seriously interested in engaging in the hermeneutical enterprise … A foundational work in the effort to better understand and interpret the world and the texts therein.

Biographical note:

Hans-Georg Gadamer was born on 11 February 1900 and died on 13 March 2002. He was the author, most notably, of Truth and Method, and, more recently, of The Beginning of Philosophy and The Beginning of Knowledge.

Promotional headline:
Hans-Georg Gadamer”s magnum opus, in which he explores the historical roots of human understanding.

for collection:
Bringing together books and thinkers that have opened up startling new ways of looking at the world, the Bloomsbury Revelations series celebrates the originality and excellence of Bloomsbury Academic”s non-fiction publishing. Including books by the likes of Carol Adams, Winston Churchill, Slavoj Zizek, Ferdinand de Saussure, Ronald Dworkin, Constantin Stanislavski, Susan Strange and Gilles Deleuze, this is an essential library of the thinkers who have fundamentally shaped the way we see the modern world.

Feature:
Widely influential text throughout the humanities and social sciences.

Feature:
One of the most important works of post-war German Philosophy.