In this interview with Jean Grondin, Gadamer discusses the meaning ‘linguisticality’ and acknowledges his intellectual debt to Heidegger, Augustine, Vico and classical Greek philosophy. Heidegger’s influence on Gadamer can be seen in Gadamer’s awareness of pernicious ontological effects of the Latinization of European language, his awareness of the centrality of technology to the understanding of contemporary philosophical problems and the idea that ‘language speaks’. From Augustine, Gadamer derived his theory of the word as that which cannot be known and brought (...) under control; from Vico the idea that language is rhetorical; and from classical philosophy the Aristotelian idea of phronesis and the Platonic idea that the idea of beauty is inseparable from the idea of the good. Gadamer concludes the interview with a discussion of the need for humanity to overcome its present fascination with technology. (shrink)

Nous nous inscrivons dans une culture, nous sommes les heritiers de multiples traditions. Le romantisme qui a su remettre la tradition a l'honneur, aussi bien que les Lumieres avec leur mefiance - allant jusqu'au refus - vis-a-vis de toute tradition, sont pour nous de telles traditions. Nous devons nous rapporter a nos traditions en Aufklarer, les soumettre a l'examen critique, mais nous devons savoir egalement que l'elucidation de la tradition ne peut se resoudre dans la pure maitrise de la critique, (...) qu'elle est reflexion a partir d'une appartenance. (shrink)