[Deathwatch] Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher, 102

[Deathwatch Central]

I can not find an English obit... he died March 13, 2002 - Ed.

Hans-Georg Gadamer

Hans-Georg Gadamer, born Feb. 11, 1900 in Marburg, Germany, is best
known for his important contribution to hermeneutics through his major
work, Wahrheit und Methode (Truth and Method). His system of
philosophical hermeneutics is a response, through an exploration of
historicity, language, and art, to Wilhelm Dilthey, Edmund Husserl, and
Martin Heidegger. As Gadamer himself tells us--  
  
As I was attempting to develop a philosophical hermeneutic, it followed
from the previous history of hermeneutics that the interpretive
(verstehenden) sciences provided my starting point. But to these was
added a hitherto neglected supplement. I am referring to the experience
of art. For both art and the historical sciences are modes of
experiencing in which our own understanding of existence comes directly
into play..... My starting point was thus the critique of Idealism and
its Romantic traditions. It was clear to me that the forms of
consciousness of our inherited and acquired historical
education--aesthetic consciousness and historical
consciousness--presented alienated forms of our true historical being.
The primordial experiences that are transmitted through art and history
are not to be grasped from the points of view of these forms of
consciousness (Philosophical Apprenticeships, 1977).

Gadamer is the son of a chemistry professor (who had hopes of Gadamer
following in his footsteps). In 1918, he began his university studies
at Breslau, moving on to Marburg in 1919 where he earned his first
doctorate at the age of 22 under the Plato scholar, Paul Natorp. During
this time, he also "stood under the influence" of Nicolai Hartmann.  

After meeting Martin Heidegger in 1923, he served as Heidegger's
assistant while continuing course work in philosophy and philology. In
1928 he completed a second doctorate (again on Plato) under Heidegger's
direction. He remained in Marburg as a Privatdozent [part-time member
with little salary] teaching classical philosophy until he got his call
to Kiel.  After a brief stint at Kiel (1934-35), he returned to Marburg
where he was honored as "extraordinary professor" in 1937.  

In 1939 he moved on to Leipzig, serving as rector in 1946-47. In the
fall of 1947 he returned to teaching and research by accepting a call
to Frankfurt am Main. In 1949 he was asked to take on Karl Jasper's
chair in Heidelberg where he remained until becoming professor emeritus
in 1968. It was while at Heidelberg that his teaching and research
"reached a first conclusion in Truth and Method."  

Upon retirement he was invited to spend semesters in residence at major
universities in the United States including Vanderbilt, Catholic
University of America, University of Dallas, Boston College, as well as
McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario,Canada. During the decades
after his retirement he has continued, until recently, to lecture
widely in the United States, Canada, and other countries.