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Epilogue: Between Scylla and Charybdis—Gadamer’s Hermeneutics

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Language as Calculus vs. Language as Universal Medium

Part of the book series: Synthese Library ((SYLI,volume 207))

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Abstract

In the main body of this study we have seen that Husserl and Heidegger take radically different stands on such key philosophical issues as the accessibility of semantics, the possibility of a re-interpretation of language, the intelligibility of speaking of worlds in the plural, the possibility of avoiding (linguistic) relativism and (semantical) Kantianism, the correct account of truth, and the justifiability of metalanguage and formalism. However, the main objective of the interpretation in parts II and III above was not (only) to draw attention to this list of differences but also to explain them as resulting from two fundamentally opposed ways of conceiving of language; to wit, to conceive of language as either being something like a re-interpretable calculus, or being as it were a universal medium of meaning. While Husserl and Heidegger were shown to stand on opposite sides of this divide, each of them turned out to be in respectable company: Husserl in that of modern semantical theory, Heidegger in that of Frege and Wittgenstein.

Zwischen Husserl und Heidegger—und Hegel …

self-characterization by H.-G. Gadamer

Das ist nicht mehr Heidegger!

M. Heidegger about Truth and Method

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Notes to Part IV

  1. Jean-Paul Sartre, L’Être et le Néant, Gallimard, Paris, 1943.

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  2. See especially their articles in Jürgen Habermas (ed.), Hermeneutik und Ideologiekritik, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 1971.

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  3. See also K.-O. Apel, Transformation der Philosophie, 2 vols., Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 1973, I pp. 22–52, II pp. 117–120, II p. 214;

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  4. J. Habermas, ”Zur Logik der Sozialforschung”, in J. Habermas, Zur Logik der Sozialforschung, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 1982, pp. 89–330, here pp. 274–310; J. Habermas, ”Der Universalitätsanspruch der Hermeneutik”, in Zur Logik der Sozialforschung, pp. 331–66;

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  5. J. Habermas, Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns, 2 vols., Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 1981, I pp. 188–93.

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  6. Cf. also Ernst Tugendhat, ”The fusion of horizons”, Times Literary Supplement, May 19, 1978, p. 565.

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  7. I here rely on ideas that I have developed earlier in two Finnish publications, ”Gadamerin avulla Gadameria vastaan” (With Gadamer against Gadamer), Ajatus, vol. 42 (1985), pp. 153–70, and Ymmärtämisen haaste (The Challenge of Understanding), Pohjoinen, Oulu, 1986, pp. 106–19.

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  8. H.-G. Gadamer, Wahrheit und Methode, 4th impression, Mohr, Tübingen, 1975, (hereafter WM), p. 261. (Also in Gesammelte Werke Vol. 1, Mohr, Tübingen, 1986.) English translation by William Glen-Doepel, Truth and Method, Sheed and Ward, London, 1975, (hereafter TM), p. 245.

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  9. For a running commentary on Gadamer’s magnum opus, see Joel C. Weinsheimer, Gadamer’s Hermeneutics: A Reading of Truth and Method, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1985.

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  10. WM, pp. 274–75; TM, p. 258.

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  11. WM, p. 286; TM, p. 269.

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  12. WM, p. 359; TM, p. 340.

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  13. From a letter to Emilio Betti, in E. Betti, Die Hermeneutik als allgemeine Methode der Geisteswissenschaften, Mohr, Tübingen, 1962, p. 51.

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  14. WM, p. 225; TM, p. 240.

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  15. Ibid.

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  16. WM, p. 265; TM, p. 249.

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  17. ”Wahrheit in den Geisteswissenschaften” (1953), in H.-G. Gadamer, Hermeneutik IL Wahrheit und Methode, Gesammelte Werke Vol. 2, Mohr, Tübingen, 1986, pp. 37–43, here p. 40.

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  18. WM, p. XXVIII; TM, p. XII.

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  19. For instance, Apel, Transformation der Philosophie, I p. 13; Horst Turk, ”Wahrheit oder Methode? H.-G. Gadamers ‘Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik’”, in Hort Birus (ed.), Hermeneutische Positionen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1982, pp. 120–50.

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  20. WM, p. 280; TM, p. 264.

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  21. WM, p. XXVII; TM, p. XI. Cf. H.-G. Gadamer, Wer bin Ich und wer bist Du? Kommentar zu Celans ”Atemkristall”, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 1986, p. 150: ”Eine hermeneutische Methode gibt es nicht.”

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  22. WM, p. XXVII; TM, p. XII.

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  23. WM, p. 327; TM, p. 309.

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  24. See note 2.

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  25. Jürgen Habermas, ”Urbanisierung der Heideggerschen Provinz. Laudatio auf Hans-Georg Gadamer”, in H.-G. Gadamer and J. Habermas, Das Erbe Hegels. Zwei Reden aus Anlaß des Hegel-Preises, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 1979, pp. 9–31.

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  26. WM, p. 290; TM, pp. 273–74.

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  27. WM, p. 357; TM, p. 338. Marja-Liisa Kakkuri-Knuuttila and I have tried to develop this idea further in a joint publication. See M.-L. Kakkuri-Knuuttila and M. Kusch, ”LSP-research, Philosophy of Science and the Question-theoretical Approach”, forthcoming in Hartmut Schröder (ed.), Subject-oriented Textlinguistics, de Gruyter, Berlin, 1989.

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  28. WM, p. 290; TM, p. 273.

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  29. WM, p. 432; TM, p. 414.

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  30. H.-G. Gadamer, ”Zwischen Phänomenologie und Dialektik. Versuch einer Selbstkritik” (1985), in Gesammelte Werke Vol. 2, pp. 3–23, here p. 10.

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  31. WM, p. 235; TM, p. 220.

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  32. See page 157 above.

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  33. See page 204 above.

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  34. WM, p. 348; TM, p. 329.

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  35. ”Die Wissenschaft von der Lebenswelt” (1972), in H.-G. Gadamer, Neuere Philosophie I: Hegel-Husserl—Heidegger, Gesammelte Werke Vol. 3, Mohr, Tübingen, 1987, pp. 147–59, here pp. 158–59. English translation by David E. Linge, ”The Science of the Life-World”, in H.-G. Gadamer, Philosophical Hermeneutics, translated and edited by David E. Linge, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1977, pp. 182–97, here pp. 196–97.

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  36. WM, p. XXV; TM, p. XXV.

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  37. WM, p. 255; TM, p. 240.

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  38. Ibid.

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  39. WM, p. 283; TM, p. 266, with translation changed.

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  40. See page 85 above. Husserl uses the German word ”Ausschaltung”.

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  41. B I 6 (1930–33), p. 1: ”Epoche hinsichtlich aller Traditionen”. ”Das vorwissenschaftliche Leben vorurteilsvoll.”

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  42. WM, p. 234; TM, p. 219.

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  43. WM, p. XXVIII; TM, p. XII.

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  44. WM, p. 366; TM, p. 350.

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  45. This is also noted in Peter Christian Lang, Hermeneutik. Ideologiekritik. Ästhetik. Uber Gadamer und Adorno sowie Fragen einer aktuellen Ästhetik. Forum Academicum, Königstein/Ts., 1981. p. 40.

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  46. It is a curious fact about the recent Anglo-Saxon interest in Gadamer that Anglo-Saxon philosophers have not shown much interest in Gadamer’s treatment of language and ontology. Of the two best-known expositions of Gadamer’s views in the English-speaking world, neither Richard Rorty’s Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (Princeton University Press, 1979),

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  47. Richard J. Bernstein’s Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis (Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1983) attempts a detailed analysis of this part of Gadamer’s thought. This fact is all the more astonishing in the light of both authors’ keen awareness of developments in the philosophy of language in general.

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  48. See his Heideggers Wege, Mohr, Tübingen, 1983.

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  49. In the otherwise highly interesting interpretation of Jean Grondin, one misses awareness of this whole issue. See Grondin, Hermeneutische Wahrheit? Zum Wahrheitsbegriff Hans-Georg Gadamers, Forum Academicum, Königs tein/Ts., 1982.

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  50. ”Martin Heidegger 75 Jahre” (1965), in Gesammelte Werke Vol. 3, pp. 187–96; ”Heidegger und die Sprache der Metaphysik”, in Gesammelte Werke Vol. 3, pp. 229–37. English translation by David E. Linge, ”Heidegger and the Language of Metaphysics”, in Gadamer, Philosophical Hermeneutics, pp. 229–40.

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  51. ”Martin Heidegger 75 Jahre”, pp. 195–96.

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  52. ”Heidegger und die Sprache der Metaphysik”, p. 236; ”Heidegger and the Language of Metaphysics”, p. 219.

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  53. In H.-G. Gadamer, ”Nachwort”, in Gadamer and Habermas, Das Erbe Hegels, pp. 65–84, here p. 91.

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  54. WM, p. 422; TM, p. 404.

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  55. WM, p. 423; TM, p. 406, translation changed.

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  56. WM, p. 424; TM, p. 406, translation changed.

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  57. WM, p. 330; TM, pp. 311–12, translation changed.

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  58. WM, p. 429; TM, pp. 410–11.

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  59. WM, p. 423; TM, p. 405.

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  60. Ibid.

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  61. WM, p. 381; TM, p. 364.

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  62. WM, p. 434; TM, pp. 415–16.

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  63. G.W.F. Hegel, Phenomenology of Mind, translated by J.B. Baillie, Macmillan, New York, 1931.

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  64. On the speculative sentence see WM, pp. 442; TM, pp 423–24. For a more extensive exposition see Günter Wohlfart, Der spekulative Satz. Be-merkungen zum Begriff der Spekulation bei Hegel, de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 1981;

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  65. Michael Theunissen, Sein und Schein. Die kritische Funktion der Hegeischen Logik, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 1980, pp. 54–60.

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  66. WM, p. 450; TM, p. 432.

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  67. ”Einleitung in die Philosophie” (1928/29).

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  68. Ibid: ”… ein sich sich unzertrennliches Geschehen …”

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  69. Ibid.

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  70. Ibid: ”Das Spielen ist seinen Grundcharakter nach … ein In-Stimmung-sein, Gestimmtsein.”

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  71. Ibid: ”Spielen = Befolgen von Spielregeln.”

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  72. Ibid: ”… weil es der metaphysische Sinn der Sprache ist, daß nicht wir mit der Sprache, sondern die Sprache mit uns spielt.”

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  73. WM, pp. 97–105; TM, pp. 91–99. That we have here an important parallel to Wittgenstein has been noted by Jörg Zimmermann, Wittgensteins sprachphilosophisshe Hermeneutik, pp. 252–259.

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  74. WW, pp. 101–2; TM, p. 95.

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  75. WM, pp. 99–100; TM, pp. 93 & 95, translation changed.

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  76. WM, p. 464; TM, p. 446.

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  77. WM, p. 132; TM p. 123.

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  78. Ibid.

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  79. WM, p. 147; TM, p. 137. 73See page above.

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  80. WM, p. 384; TM, pp. 367–68.

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  81. WM, p. 391; TM, p. 374, translation changed.

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  82. WM, pp. 387–88; TM, p. 371.

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  83. Hintikka and Hintikka, Investigating Wittgenstein, pp. 120–21.

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  84. Quoted from Investigating Wittgenstein, p. 229.

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  85. Quoted from Investigating Wittgenstein, p. 94.

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  86. Quoted from Investigating Wittgenstein, p. 239.

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  88. Stress added. Quoted from Investigating Wittgenstein, p. 100.

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  89. Quoted from Investigating Wittgenstein, p. 227.

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  95. Quoted from Investigating Wittgenstein, p. 239.

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  98. See ”Die Natur der Sache und die Sprache der Dinge” (1960), Gesammelte Werke Vol. 2, pp. 66–76, here p. 73.

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  100. WM, p. 394; TM, p. 377.

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  102. See page 204 above.

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    Martin Kusch

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Kusch, M. (1989). Epilogue: Between Scylla and Charybdis—Gadamer’s Hermeneutics. In: Language as Calculus vs. Language as Universal Medium. Synthese Library, vol 207. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2417-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2417-8_4

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