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Dictionary definition: Gadamer, Hans-Georg
- Article from:
- The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy
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Copyright© The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information)
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Gadamer, Hans-Georg (1900–2002)
German philosopher. Born in Marburg, Gadamer was a student of
Heidegger's
. His first post was at the university of Marburg, followed by chairs at Leipzig, Frankfurt, and Heidelberg. Gadamer is renowned for his work on the theory of interpretation, and for exploring what has come to be known as ‘reader-response theory’. According to this the meaning of a text is never a function purely of facts about the author and his original public; it is equally a function of the historical situation of the interpreter. The leading metaphor ...