Editing Jürgen Habermas (section)

=== Habermas and Gadamer ===
There is a controversy between Habermas and [[Hans-Georg Gadamer]] about the limits of [[hermeneutics]]. Gadamer completed his magnum opus ''Truth and Method'' in 1960, and engaged in his debate with Habermas over the possibility of transcending history and culture in order to find a truly objective position from which to critique society.

During the 1960s, Gadamer supported Habermas and advocated for him to be offered a job at Heidelberg before he had completed his habilitation, despite Max Horkheimer's objections. While they both criticized positivism, a philosophical disagreement arose between them in the 1970s. This disagreement expanded the scope of Gadamer's philosophical influence. Despite fundamental agreements between them, such as starting from the hermeneutic tradition and returning to Greek practical philosophy, Habermas argued that Gadamer's emphasis on tradition and prejudice blinded him to the ideological operation of power. Habermas believed that Gadamer's approach failed to enable critical reflection on the sources of ideology in society. He accused Gadamer of endorsing a dogmatic stance toward tradition, which made it difficult to identify distortions in understanding. Gadamer countered that refusing the universal nature of hermeneutics was the more dogmatic stance because it affirmed the deception that the subject can free itself from the past.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Barthold |first1=Lauren Swayne |title=Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900—2002) |url=https://iep.utm.edu/gadamer/ |website=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |access-date=22 February 2023}}</ref>