One of the first book-length studies to examine Gadamer's relation to Heidegger in depth, this important work looks at the ways in which Gadamer positively appropriates central elements of Heidegger's work as well as the way he extends Heidegger's critique of Western metaphysics, avoiding and tacitly challenging some of the most problematical aspects of Heidegger's work. By examining two of the central concepts in Gadamer's work, tradition and language, and by analyzing Gadamer's relation to his mentor, Martin Heidegger, Sheibler successfully shows that far from being the conservative both modernist and post-modernist critics have accused him of being, Gadamer anticipates a number of concerns central to post-modern or post-structuralist thought.

By Ingrid H. Scheibler

Part 1 Preface
Part 2 Note on Translation
Part 3 Abbreviations
Part 4 Introduction
Part 5 The Modernist Left: Haberman's Critique of Gadamer I
Chapter 6 Background to the Debate
Chapter 7 Points of Agreement
Chapter 8 Points of Disagreement
Part 9 The Modernist Left: Haberman's Critique og Gadamer II
Chapter 10 Haberman's Criticism of Gadamer: Tradition and Hermeneutical Reflection
Chapter 11 Gadamer's Rehabilitation of the Concept of Tradition
Chapter 12 A Defence Against the Charge of Subjectivism: Gadamer's Model of Dialogue
Part 13 The Postmodern Critique: Vattimo's Reading of the Gadamer
Chapter 14 Vattimo's Reading og Gadamer: The Soziales Einverstandnis
Chapter 15 Soziales Eiverstandnis and the Linguisticality of Understanding
Chapter 16 The Importance of Practical Judgement
Part 17 Heidegger and the Cririque of the Traditional Concept of the Language
Chapter 18 Metaphysics and the Question of Being: The Early Critique
Chapter 19 The Turn to Language: The Position of Poetry
Part 20 Gadamer's Appropriation of Heidegger: Languauge and the Achievement of Continuity
Chapter 21 Language as Experience of the World
Chapter 22 Language as Medium
Chapter 23 Gadamer's Distance from Heidegger: Language as Self-Presentation and the Dialectical Concept of the Continuity
Chapter 24 Against Languauge on the Model of Poetry: Language as Self-Presentation
Chapter 25 Gadamer's Dialectical Conception of Continuity
Part 26 Conclusion
Part 27 Bibliography
Part 28 Index
Part 29 About the Author