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Hans-Georg Gadamer is considered to have made the most important contribution to hermeneutics of this century through his major work, Truth and Method. Born in Marburg on February 11, 1900, he earned his doctorate under Paul Natorp, the Plato scholar, in 1922 and completed his habilitation thesis on Plato's dialectical ethics under Martin Heidegger in 1928. He spent the major portion of his teaching career at the University of Heidelberg, becoming emeritus professor in 1968. In retirement he became widely known in the United States through his regular fall courses at Boston college and his numerous lectures at major universities throughout the century.
About the author
Hans-Georg Gadamer
Summary
This is a study of the pre-Socratic philosophers, moving from such ancient interpreters as Simplicius and Diogenes Laertius to the 19th-century German historicists, to Hegel, Nietzsche and Heidegger.
Report
"These ten lectures on the pre-Socratic beginnings of philosophy, by one of the world's greatest living philosophers, were originally delivered in Italian at the Naples Institute for the Study of Philosophy in 1988....Directed to a general university audience, they reflect Gadamer's lively and engaging style. He takes major topics in Plato and Aristotle--reason, opinion, nature, spirit, and being--and traces them back to their pre-Socratic antecedents, especially Parmenides' Way of Truth. A careful and accurate translation of a lively, engaging, and accessible series of lectures on pre-Socratic philosophy. Highly recommended."--Choice
