Truth and Method

Jul 6, 2026

Truth and Method presents a philosophical inquiry into truth through the lens of art, hermeneutics, and language. It develops the question of artistic truth, explores the ontology of the artwork and the hermeneutic significance of play, temporality, and interpretation. The work extends the problem of truth to the human sciences, tracing paths from romantic hermeneutics and historicism to phenomenological research. It culminates in an ontological shift guided by language, treating language as the medium and horizon of hermeneutic experience.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages637

Reading Time26 h 45 min

Contents

Translator's Preface

Introduction

Foreword to the second edition

Part 1: The question of truth as it emerges in the experience of art

Part 2: The extension of the question of truth to understanding in the human sciences

Historical preparation

Elements of a theory of hermeneutic experience

Analysis of historically effected consciousness

Part 3: The ontological shift of hermeneutics guided by language

Language and Hermeneutics

Appendices and Supplements

Afterword

Subject Index

Author Index

GadamerTRUTH AND METHODcontnuum TRUTH AND METHOD TRUTH AND METHOD Second,Revised EditionTranslation revised by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G.Marshall Continuum The Tower Building11 York RoadLondon SE17NX www.continuumbooks.com Copyright ◎1975 and 1989 by Sheed &Ward Ltd and theContinuum Publishing Group. ISBN 082647697X Typeset by Interactive Scieuces Ltd,GloucesterPrinted and bound in Great Britainby Antony Rowe,Chippenham,Wiltshire 80 Maiden Lane Suite 704 New York NY 10038 First published 1975;second edition 1989;this edition 2004.Reprinted 2006.Allrights reserved. Catch only what you've thrown yourself,all ismere skilland little gain; but when you're suddenly the catcher of a ballthrown by an eternal partnerwith accurate and measured swingtowards you,to your center,in an archfrom the great bridgebuilding of God:why catching then becomes a power—not yours,a world's —Rainer Maria Rilke Contents Translator's Prefacexi Introduction XX Foreword to the second editionXXV PART 1.The question of truth as it emerges in theexperience of art 上 1 Transcending the aesthetic dimension 3 1 The significance of the humanist tradition for thehuman sciences3(A)The problem of method3(B)The guiding concepts of humanism8(i)Bildung(culture)8(ii)Sensus communis17(iii)Judgment27(iv)Taste3I 2 The subjectivization of aesthetics through theKantian critique 37 (A)Kant's doctrine of taste and genius37(i)The transcendental distinctness oftaste37(ii)The doctrine of free and dependentbeauty39(iii)The doctrine of the ideal of beauty41(iv)The interest aroused by natural andartistic beauty43(v)The relation between taste and genius47(B)The aesthetics of genius and the conceptof experience (Erlebnis)49(i)The dominance of the concept ofgenius49 (ii)On the history of the word Erlebnis 53 (iii)The concept of Erlebnis56 (iv)The limits of Erlebniskunst and therehabilitation of allegory61 # 3 Retrieving the question of artistic truth 70 (A)The dubiousness of the concept of aestheticcultivation(Bildung) 70 (B)Critique of the abstraction inherent in aesthetic consciousness 772 The ontology of the work of art and itshermeneutic significance1021 Play as the clue to ontological explanation102(A)The concept of play102(B)Transformation into structure and totalmediation110(C)The temporality of the aesthetic119(D)The example of the tragic1252 Aesthetic and hermeneutic consequences130(A)The ontological valence of the picture130(B)The ontological foundation of theoccasional and the decorative138(C)The borderline position of literature153(D)Reconstruction and integration ashermeneutic tasks157 # PART IⅡ:The extension of the question of truth tounderstanding in the human sciences172 3 Historical preparation 174 1 The questionableness of romantic hermeneuticsand its application to the study of history174(A)The change in hermeneutics from theEnlightenment to romanticism174(i)The prehistory of romantichermeneutics174(ii)Schleiermacher's project of a universalhermeneutics183(B)The connection between the historicalschool and romantic hermeneutics194(i)The dilemma involved in the ideal ofuniversal history194(ii)Ranke's historical worldview200(iii)The relation between historical studyand hermeneutics in J.G.Droysen207 2 Dilthey's entanglement in the aporias ofhistoricism 213 (A)From the epistemological problem ofhistory to the hermeneutic foundationof the human sciences 213 (B)The conflict between science and life-philosophy in Dilthey's analysis ofhistorical consciousness224 3 Overcoming the epistemological problemthrough phenomenological research234(A)The concept of life in Husserl and CountYorck234(B〉Heidegger's project of a hermeneuticphenomenology244 4 Elements of a theory of hermeneutic experience2671 The elevation of the historicity of under-standing to the status of a hermeneuticprinciple267 (A)The hermeneutic circle and the problemof prejudices267 (i)Heidegger's disclosure

FAQs

How does the book address the question of truth through the experience of art?

It develops the question of artistic truth by examining issues such as aesthetic consciousness, the ontology of the work of art, and the hermeneutic significance of play, structure, and temporality.

What path does the text outline for extending truth to the human sciences?

It tracks historical preparation in hermeneutics and historicism, then moves toward overcoming epistemological problems via phenomenological research and a theory of hermeneutic experience.

What is the role of language in the book’s final ontological turn?

Language is treated as the medium and horizon of hermeneutic experience, shaping both hermeneutic objects and acts, and grounding a hermeneutic ontology.

Jul 6, 2026

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