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Hans-GeorgGadamer's
"Correction"of Heidegger
WalterLammi
487
5 Sein,das verstanden
werdenkann,istSprache,oftenbutsomewhatobscurelyrendered
as "Being thatcan be understoodis language."The sentenceis italicizedin the original
althoughnotin thetranslation (TM,432;WM,450).We willreturnto thisstatement below.
6 Habermas,Profiles,190.
7Ibid., 190-91.
8 RobertBernasconi offersthiscritiqueofGadamerin "BridgingtheAbyss:Heidegger
and Gadamer,"Researchin Phenomenology, 16 (1986), 4.
9 See StanleyRosen, Hermeneuticsas Politics(New York, 1987), 94: "Philological
in the face
sobrietyis a veryadmirablequality,but it pales intohistoricalinsignificance
of philosophicalmadness."
Gadamer's "Correction"
ofHeidegger 489
10
Althoughthisargumentis trueenoughas faras it goes, ultimately it lacks force
becauseit missesthepointof Truthand Method.Brieflyput,thatpointis to describehow
we findtruth,whichis notat all throughany"theoryoftruth."As for"method,"we will
see that while Gadamer's hermeneutical approach to truthis relevantto judging the
limitationsof any formalmethodof gainingknowledge,includingthe "scientific,"it is
itselfsimplydescriptiveas opposedto "methodological."
" "Gadamerhimselfseldommentionstruthdirectlyand nowhereformulates a coher-
ent characterizationof it in his own terms."Francis J. Ambrosio,"Dawn and Dusk:
Gadamerand Heideggeron Truth,"Man and World,19 (1986), 39. A listofcriticswho
havefastenedon thislacunain Truthand Methodis providedbyBriceR. Wachterhauser,
"Must We Be WhatWe Say?Gadameron Truthin theHumanSciences,"inHermeneutics
and ModernPhilosophy, ed. BriceR. Wachterhauser (Albany,1986),220 and n. 7, 238.
12
Bernasconi,"BridgingtheAbyss,"3.
13
Gadamer,"On the Problemof Self-Understanding," 50.
14 See Gadamer'sdescription of the deep impressionthisworkmade on Heidegger's
studentsin "Heidegger'sLaterPhilosophy(1960)," inPhilosophical Hermeneutics, 216-17.
15 Earlier"hermeneutics" referred usuallyto interpretation
oftheBible;but notuntil
Heideggerwas it universalized to referto theverystructureofhumanbeing-in-the-world.
See JosefBleicher,Contemporary Hermeneutics: Hermeneutics as Method,Philosophy and
Critique(London, 1980), 11-26.
490 WalterLammi
16
Hans-GeorgGadamer,"Text and Interpretation," and Modern
in Hermeneutics
Philosophy,378-79.
17 Ibid.,380.
18 See TheodoreKisiel,"The HappeningofTradition:The Hermeneutics ofGadamer
and Heidegger,"in Hermeneutics and Praxis,ed. RobertHollinger(NotreDame, 1985),
is an undergoing."
9: ". . . understanding
19See, for example,Hans-GeorgGadamer, "The PhilosophicFoundationsof the
TwentiethCentury,"PhilosophicalHermeneutics, 125.
20 TM, 239.
21
Roy J. Howard, ThreeFaces ofHermeneutics: An Introductionto CurrentTheories
of Understanding (Berkeley,1982), 147.
22
At issue,Gadamerpointsout,is the"astoundingnaiveteofthesubjectiveconscious-
ness,"whichapproachesa textwitha senseofcertainty here!"
that"thatis whatis written
("PhilosophicalFoundations,"121).
ofHeidegger
Gadamer's "Correction" 491
37TM, xxiv.
ofHusserl'svoluminousstudies
38 Heideggerwas theeditorof thepublishedportions
of internaltime-consciousness.
39 Gadamer,"Heidegger'sPaths," 83.
40To simplify somewhat,Heidegger'sanalysisin Being and Time retainsHusserl's
notionofintentionalitybut reappliesit from"consciousness"to Dasein's entirebeing-in-
the-world (JitendraNath Mohanty,The ConceptofIntentionality [St. Louis, 1972],129).
41 He speaks of the "phenomenological craftsmanship"that was "all too quickly
forgotten by the scholarshipof the time." Hans-GeorgGadamer,"Heideggerand the
Languageof Metaphysics(1967)," PhilosophicalHermeneutics, 230.
42 Hans-GeorgGadamer,"The Phenomenological Movement(1963)," Philosophical
Hermeneutics, 143.
494 WalterLammi
47 Ibid.,271.
50Ibid.,271.
51Ibid., 490.
52Ibid., 269.
53Cf. Howard, ThreeFaces ofHermeneutics, 148.
54 The GermantermsWirkungsgeschichte and wirkungsgeschichtliches are
Bewusstsein
misleadinglytranslatedthroughoutthe Englishtranslationof Truthand Methodand
elsewhereas "effective-history" consciousness."Here theywill
and "effective-historical
be renderedmoreaccuratelyas "historyoftheinfluence"and "consciousnessofthehistory
of influence"respectively. (I am indebtedto ProfessorGeorge L. Kline at BrynMawr
College forbothpointingout thisproblemand suggesting the solution.)
55" PhilosophicalFoundations,"127.
56 Understanding to Gadamer alwaysinvolvesinterpretation. See, forexample,TM,
274: "Interpretationis the explicitformof understanding."
57 TM, 274.
58
"PhilosophicalFoundations,"127.
496 WalterLammi
of the "metaphysicsof
his relationto the traditionand understanding
presence."
70
This is thethrustof Heidegger'sletterto Richardsonin the Forewordof Through
Phenomenology to Thought.See also David Krell, "Nietzsche in Heidegger'sKehre,"
198-99,and Calvin 0. Schrag,"The Transvaluationof Aestheticsand theWorkof Art,"
ThinkingAboutBeing,123.
71 The "topologyof Being" is among the late Heidegger'smost opaque and poetic
74 Ibid.,62.
75 P6ggeler, Path,107.
76Gadamer,"The Relevanceof the Beautiful,"Relevance37.
" TM, 432.
11.
78Ibid.,
102.
PhilosophicalHermeneutics,
79Gadamer,"Aestheticsand Hermeneutics,"
80 C. D. Keyes,"Truthas Art:An Interpretation ofHeidegger'sSein undZeit (Sec.44)
and Der Ursprung Des Kunstwerkes,"in Sallis (ed.), Heideggerand thePath of Thinking,
70-71.
81 Gadamer,"Heidegger'sLater Philosophy," 217.
82 Ibid.
83
Ibid.,223.
500 WalterLammi
To explicatetheconceptof"abiding,"Gadamerrefers to thehistorical
originsofartin religiousdance and festivals.In theperformance ofdance
and, more clearly,the re-creationof festival,the eventsare joined not
simply"in" time,but takeon a timeoftheirown. "Festivaltime"is not
just a span of hours or days,but a special kind of timewitha special
mood (Stimmung)-thatis,a specialwayofbeing.Fulfilledtimeis auton-
omous time,thatis, timethatstandsapart fromthe ongoingtemporal
movementof externalnature.93 In the specialway thatwe have to learn
how to tarrywiththeworkofartin orderto experienceit,Gadamerfinds
a kindoftemporality thatis "perhapstheonlyway thatis grantedto us
finitebeingsto relateto whatwe call eternity."94
In orderto understandHeidegger'srejectionof transhistorical and
atemporaltruth,thecriticalquestionbecomes:whatsortofdiscontinuity
and continuity does thisspecial sortof timeimply?"Real knowledge,"
Gadamerhas written, "has to recognizethekairos."95But forGadamer,
above all it is "preciselycontinuity thateveryunderstanding of timehas
to achieve,even when it is a questionof the temporality of a workof
art."96For Heidegger,as we see in the nextsection,thisis not so clear.
vs. Discontinuity
IV. Continuity
ofturning
sky,instead
hassetintheevening shimmer
aroundtolookforthefirst
ofitsreturn?98
98 TM, xxv,translationslightlyrevised.
99The close relationship
of "history"and "the tradition"is expressedin Gadamer's
workby the conceptof "consciousnessof the historyof influence,"to whichwe return
below (TM, 416).
100Cf. Bernasconi,"Bridgingthe Abyss,"5.
101Heidegger,"Time and Being,"9.
102 Bernasconi,"Bridgingthe Abyss,"5.
ofHeidegger
Gadamer's "Correction" 503
thinksthatmodernity is defined"quiteunequivocally"bytheemergence
ofmodernscience.103 That is Heidegger'sgrandview,in whichthekairos
is the epochal sendingof Beingas thedelimitation of temporaltruth.In
order to understandwhat will turnout to be a subtlebut ultimately
importantcorrectionof this view by Gadamer,it is helpfulto turnto
anothersense or "level" of the kairos,also suggestedby the Biblical
reference:"[T]hensuddendestruction comethuponthem,as travailupon
a woman withchild,"104 or as the ever-unexpected arrivalof our own
death.
Heideggergrantspriority to thefuturein thetemporalconstitution of
Dasein in Being and Time. This priorityis consistentwiththe epochal
giftsof Being: "the originalwayscomes to meetus fromthe future."105
This consistency providesanotherreminderof theelementof continuity
in Heidegger'sthoughtaftertheKehre;as Heideggerhimselfhas stressed,
theorientation aftertheKehreis onlypossibleon thebasisoftheexistential
analyticofBeingand Time.106 The reasonforDasein's future-orientation
turnsout to be its ultimatepossibility-its"ownmostpotentiality-for-
Being"-which is nothingotherthandeath.107 Dasein's discoveryofhow
to liveauthenticallydependsuponan anxiousand resolutebeing-toward-
death,and consequently towardthefuture.108
On thisissueGadamertakesspecificexceptionto Heidegger'sanalysis.
He pointsout thatbeing-toward-death is unnecessaryforestablishingthe
essentialtemporality or finiteness of Dasein, since its basic constitution
ofbeing-in-the-world as "care" (Sorge)alreadyestablishesthatfiniteness.
Indeed,afterBeingand TimeHeideggerhimself"neveragainplaced the
problematic ofdeathat thecenterofhis thought."109 Thus whileHeideg-
ger retainedhis sense of the priorityof the futureafterthe Kehre,in
respectto its originalbasis in thetemporalanalyticofDasein it becomes
to Gadamerhighlyquestionable.
Probablybecause of Gadamer'sgeneralreluctanceto takeissue with
Heidegger,as wellas therelativeprominence ofhis moregentleaffirma-
tion of differencein the Forewordto the second editionof Truthand
104IThess.: 5,3.
105Heidegger,"Dialogue on Language," 10.
106
Heidegger,"Letterto Richardson,"xvi-xx.
107
MartinHeidegger,Being and Time,tr. JohnMacquarrieand Edward Robinson
(New York, 1962), 307, emphasisin the original.
revealsto Dasein its
108 Cf.Beingand Time,311 (Sein und Zeit, 266): "[A]nticipation
lostnessin the they-self, and bringsit face to face withthe possibilityof being itself,
primarilyunsupportedby concernfulsolicitude,but of beingitself,rather,in an impas-
sionedfreedomtowardsdeath-a freedomwhichhas been releasedfromthe illusionsof
the 'they,'and whichis factical,certainof itself,and anxious." The entirepassage is
italicizedin the original,withthe phrase"freedomtowardsdeath" boldfacedforadded
emphasis.
'09Gadamer. "HeideLLer'sPaths." 85-86.
504 WalterLammi
1
IIbid., 86.
I "On the Problemof Self-Understanding," 51.
112 Ibid., 58.
113 Cf. "Aestheticsand Hermeneutics,"
104.
114 Gadamer,"Hegel and Heidegger,"Hegel's Dialectic:Five Hermeneutical
Studies,
tr.P. Christopher Smith(New Haven, 1971), 109.
" ofHeidegger
Gadamer's "Correction 505
in Cairo.
The AmericanUniversity
125
See, forexample,Grimm'sIntroductionto P6ggeler,"Being as Appropriation,"
146.
126 Michael Allen Gillespie,"MartinHeidegger,"Historyof PoliticalPhilosophy, ed.
Leo Straussand JosephCropsey(Chicago, 1972), 903.
127 FrederickLawrence,"Gadamer and Lonergan:A DialecticalComparison,"Inter-
nationalPhilosophicalQuarterly, 20 (1980), 31. Lawrence'spointseems to be that the
avoidanceofdogmatism intheGreekunderstanding ofreasonentailsa kindofagnosticism:
Reason permitsofrevelation"in principle,"so to speak,eventhoughas "beyondreason,"
revelationis ultimately"unreasonable."