Life and philosophy. On learning hermeneutical humility

Abstract

At the 51st anniversary of the publication of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Truth and method (1960), this paper will approach the articulating thread between the hermeneutical project—initially formulated as an investigation that aims to rethink the phenomenon of understanding in as much as it concerns to all our vital experience—and its characterization as practical philosophy under the categories of plurality, dialogue and responsibility. In other words, we will show how Gadamer, in the context of ours technological times and under a phenomenological influence, defines hermeneutics as the “praxis” of understanding the other. This “praxis” must be conceived at the same time as a “learning of humility”, capable of helping us to construct “a reasonably ordered and comprehensible world where we are bound to live”. To this extend we will concentrate ourselves in Gadamer’s rehabilitation of some topics of Greek philosophy, that will allow him formulate his concept of “praxis” in opposition to its modern meaning as well as to the expert culture of contemporary society.