Editing Hans-Georg Gadamer (section)

===Philosophical hermeneutics and ''Truth and Method''===
Gadamer's philosophical project, as explained in ''[[Truth and Method]]'', was to elaborate on the concept of "[[Hermeneutics|philosophical hermeneutics]]", which Heidegger initiated but never dealt with at length. Gadamer's goal was to uncover the nature of human understanding. In ''Truth and Method'', Gadamer argued that "truth" and "method" were at odds with one another. For Gadamer, "the experience of art is exemplary in its provision of truths that are inaccessible by scientific methods, and this experience is projected to the whole domain of human sciences."<ref>Skorin-Kapov, Jadranka (2016), "The Intertwining of Aesthetics and Ethics: Exceeding of Expectations, Ecstasy, Sublimity," Lexington Books, {{ISBN|978-1498524568}}</ref> He was critical of two approaches to the [[human science]]s (''[[Geisteswissenschaft]]en''). On the one hand, he was critical of modern approaches to humanities that modeled themselves on the natural sciences, which simply sought to "objectively" observe and analyze texts and art. On the other hand, he took issue with the traditional German approaches to the humanities, represented for instance by [[Friedrich Schleiermacher]] and [[Wilhelm Dilthey]], who believed that meaning, as an object, could be found within a text through a particular process that allowed for a connection with the author's thoughts that led to the creation of a text (Schleiermacher),{{sfn|Schleiermacher|Wojcik|Haas|1978|pp=5, 10}} or the situation that led to an expression of human inner life (Dilthey).{{sfn|Palmer|1969|p=98}}

However, Gadamer argued meaning and understanding are not objects to be found through certain methods, but are inevitable phenomena.{{sfn|Palmer|1969|p=163}} Hermeneutics is not a process in which an interpreter finds a particular meaning, but "a philosophical effort to account for understanding as an ontological—the ontological—process of man."{{sfn|Palmer|1969|p=163}} Thus, Gadamer is not giving a prescriptive method on how to understand, but rather he is working to examine how understanding, whether of texts, artwork, or experience, is possible at all. Gadamer intended ''Truth and Method'' to be a description of what we always do when we interpret things (even if we do not know it): "My real concern was and is philosophic: not what we do or what we ought to do, but what happens to us over and above our wanting and doing".<ref>Truth and Method 2nd ed. Sheed and Ward, London 1989 XXVIII</ref>

{{Conservatism in Germany}}

As a result of [[Martin Heidegger]]'s temporal analysis of human existence, Gadamer argued that people have a so-called historically-effected [[consciousness]] (''wirkungsgeschichtliches Bewußtsein''), and that they are embedded in the particular history and culture that shaped them. However the historical consciousness is not an object over and against our existence, but "a stream in which we move and participate, in every act of understanding."{{sfn|Palmer|1969|p=117}} Therefore, people do not come to any given thing without some form of preunderstanding established by this historical stream. The tradition in which an interpreter stands establishes "prejudices" that affect how he or she will make interpretations. For Gadamer, these prejudices are not something that hinders our ability to make interpretations, but are both integral to the reality of being, and "are the basis of our being able to understand history at all."{{sfn|Palmer|1969|p=182}} Gadamer criticized Enlightenment thinkers for harboring a "prejudice against prejudices".{{sfn|Gonzales|2006|p=328}}

For Gadamer, interpreting a text involves a [[fusion of horizons]] (''Horizontverschmelzung''). Both the text and the interpreter find themselves within a particular historical tradition, or "horizon". Each horizon is expressed through the medium of language, and both text and interpreter belong to and participate in history and language. This "belongingness" to language is the common ground between interpreter and text that makes understanding possible. As an interpreter seeks to understand a text, a common horizon emerges. This fusion of horizons does not mean the interpreter now fully understands some kind of objective meaning, but is "an event in which a world opens itself to him."{{sfn|Palmer|1969|p=209}} The result is a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

Gadamer further explains the hermeneutical experience as a dialogue. To justify this, he uses [[Plato#The dialogues|Plato's dialogues]] as a model for how we are to engage with written texts. To be in conversation, one must take seriously "the truth claim of the person with whom one is conversing."{{sfn|Gonzales|2006|pp=322–323}} Further, each participant in the conversation relates to one another insofar as they belong to the common goal of understanding one another.{{sfn|Gonzales|2006|p=323}} Ultimately, for Gadamer, the most important dynamic of conversation as a model for the interpretation of a text is "the give-and-take of question and answer."{{sfn|Gonzales|2006|p=323}} In other words, the interpretation of a given text will change depending on the questions the interpreter asks of the
text. The "meaning" emerges not as an object that lies in the text or in the interpreter, but rather an event that results from the interaction of the two.

''Truth and Method'' was published twice in English, and the revised edition is now considered authoritative. The German-language edition of Gadamer's Collected Works includes a volume in which Gadamer elaborates his argument and discusses the critical response to the book. Finally, Gadamer's essay on [[Paul Celan|Celan]] (entitled "Who Am I and Who Are You?") has been considered by many—including Heidegger and Gadamer himself—as a "second volume" or continuation of the argument in ''Truth and Method''.

====Contributions to communication ethics====
Gadamer's ''Truth and Method'' has become an authoritative work in the [[communication ethics]] field, spawning several prominent ethics theories and guidelines. The most profound of these is the formulation of the dialogic coordinates, a standard set of prerequisite communication elements necessary for inciting dialogue. Adhering to Gadamer's theories regarding bias, communicators can better initiate dialogic transaction, allowing biases to merge and promote mutual understanding and learning.<ref name="ReferenceA">Communication Ethics Literacy: Dialogue and Difference Arnett, Harden Fritz & Bell, Los Angeles 2009</ref>