Truth and Method

What Hacker News says

1. dmvdougSep 2024
   Information I see:

   I think all understanding and therefore all learning is hermeneutic.

   I was persuaded by Hans-Georg Gadamer’s magnum opus, Truth and Method.

   I think his theory, which he called “philosophical hermeneutics,” is a skeleton key for understanding our understanding.

   Right around the time he published the book, there was a large shift in academic fashion towards critical theory and deconstructionism, of which Gadamer is neither.

   The result is that Gadamer and his work took a backseat to critical theory.

   We lost something important in that shift.

   Others recognized the importance of Gadamer’s work but diluted it by trying to merge it with their pet theories (Ricoeur with critical theory, Rorty with American-style pragmatism).

   ——————————

   That said, Gadamer’s work is dense but not impenetrable. And it is beautiful. And profound. Go forth and read!

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2. robwwilliamsAug 2024
   Hmm, I just asked Claude how Hans-Georg Gamader got dropped.

   Claude 3.5 Sonnet:

   I apologize for the oversight in not including Hans-Georg Gadamer. You're absolutely right to point this out, and he certainly deserves a place on this list. Gadamer was a highly influential philosopher, particularly in the field of hermeneutics, and his work has had a significant impact on philosophy, literary theory, and the humanities in general.

   Given his importance, Gadamer should definitely be included in the top 100 list. Here's where I would place him, considering his influence:

   [Insert after #11 and before #12, shifting the rest down]

   11. Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900)

   Gadamer's major work, "Truth and Method" (1960), is considered one of the most important philosophical works of the 20th century. His contributions to hermeneutics, the theory of interpretation and understanding, have been hugely influential across many disciplines.

   Thank you for bringing this to my attention. It's a good reminder of how important it is to carefully consider all significant figures when compiling such lists, especially those right at the century's turn who had long, influential careers throughout the 20th century.

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3. zppxJul 2010
   My list:

   - Pirkei Avot, it's a section of the Mishnah (a part of the Talmud), it summarizes the jewish moral thought (well, not for the Karaites Jews, they did not believe in the Talmud), I was born in a Orthodox Jewish family so it was important on my beliefs, even though I am an Atheist now.

   - Organon, it's a compilation of Aristotle's logic works, they are the basis for the logical thought of the Western civilization, I think it's easier to read the originals than compendiums.

   - Philosophical Investigations, the second book of Wittgenstein, it's dense, and obscure to some extent, but it's really eye-opener, some ideas that influenced the last century are introduced there.

   - Proofs and Refutations, a posthumous work by Imre Lakatos, it defied much of my established view on how Mathematics works.

   - Thus Spoke Zarathustra, a powerful book, it's dense and you can only drag many conclusions from it when you read other works from Nietzsche, which lead to my next book.

   - On the Genealogy of Morality, this is for me the most important of the 5 books that I have read from Nietzsche, in the first essay of the book the concept of master morality and slave morality is introduced, some people think that Nietzsche favors the first, I disagree, for me he describes and criticizes both.

   - Truth and Method, the classic of Gadamer, some people call it a "postmodern" work, this only serves to show how "modern" some of the "postmodern" were, the book basically addresses how our current beliefs and customs, which he calls traditions, plays an important part in our hermeneutics and how we always are biased to interpret something.

   - Epistemic Justification, this book of William Alston is a good refinement if you already know some epistemology, although I disagree with the "justified true belief" definition of knowledge, that is the main theme of the book and its essays, it introduced some questions about the nature and limitations of knowledge.

   - Inquiry into the Human Mind, by Thomas Reid is a good read and also a staunch defense of the common sense.

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4. tommorrisMar 2010
   Elsewhere in the thread, I posted some recommendations on books on philosophy of religion from a non-theistic perspective. I guess I should probably list some books on philosophy generally.

   1. Bertrand Russell - The Problems of Philosophy

   A good introduction to the basic things which philosophers in the Anglo-American/analytic tradition worry about in logic, metaphysics and epistemology (primarily epistemology): induction, a priori knowledge, anti-sceptical arguments, and universals.

   2. Hans-Georg Gadamer - Truth and Method

   You know about the 'Continental' philosophers, right? All those wacky guys like Derrida. They are all a bit suspicious, right? Like, Heidegger was a Nazi, and Foucault spreads HIV. Yeah, gossip is great. A lot of this type of philosophy seems like bunkum - Alan Sokal showed that, right? Lots of waffly French dudes talking out of their ass, abusing science to basically support their political ideology. Gadamer isn't like that. He sets out to try and answer the question "how do we understand texts?" and rather than saying something goofy like "we just make up what we understand about texts" or that we deconstruct them by subjecting them to our ideological whims, ripping the book apart to suit whatever the passing fancy is. No, Gadamer tries to explicate how the reading of a book is more of a process that starts with pre-judgement - 'prejudice' in Gadamer's words. Such prejudice is natural and actually quite desirable. You do judge a book by the cover. To understand a book as a whole, you need to understand all the components which make it up. But to understand any bit of the book, you need to understand how it fits into the wider contest of the book. This 'hermeneutic cycle' is daunting, but the only thing you can do is jump on board.

   3. Saul Kripke - Naming and Necessity

   Kripke's book is on a slightly strange topic: how we use names. But how he deals with this is an interesting problem is a model of clarity and philosophical excellence. It has also been very influential - the way Kripke solves the problem with names led to other philosophers producing many so-called causal accounts of all sorts of things.

   I'd post some more, but I've got to get the hell out of my hotel room and go to a philosophy conference...

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5. cafardJul 2018
   Last month I finished reading Truth and Method, a book purchased from somebody moving out of town about 1981. Last fall I finished reading The World as Will and Imagination, which was part of the same purchase.

   Those are outliers for my advance purchases. Truth be told, though, lack of shelf space does a lot for my self-discipline.

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6. pooya72Feb 2018
   On the other hand, it's interesting how well Google Translate translates philosophical text. Just compare the translations below.

   Gadamer's text from Truth and Method:

   Die folgenden Untersuchungen haben es mit dem hermeneutischen Problem zu tun. Das Phänomen des Verstehens und der rechten Auslegung des Verstandenen ist nicht nur ein Spezialproblem der geisteswissenschaftlichen Methodenlehre. Es hat von alters her auch eine theologische und eine juristische Hermeneutik gegeben, die nicht so sehr wissenschaftstheoretischen Charakters waren, als"vielmehr dem praktischen Verhalten des durch die Wissenschaft ausgebildeten Richters oder Pfarrers entsprachen und ihm dienten.

   Weinsheimer and Marshall translation:

   These studies are concerned with the problem of hermeneutics. The phenomenon of understanding and of the correct interpretation of what has been understood is not a problem specific to the methodology of the human sciences alone. There has long been a theological and a legal hermeneutics, which were not so much theoretical as corrolary and ancillary to the practical activity of the judge or clergyman who had completed his theoretical trainin

   Google translate:

   The following investigations have to do with the hermeneutic problem. The phenomenon of understanding and the right interpretation of the understanding is not only a special problem of the humanistic methodology. There has also been a theological and juridical hermeneutics from ancient times, which were not so much scientific-theoretical in character as they corresponded to and served the practical behavior of the scientist or pastor trained by science.

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