Conclusion

Amy E. Varela

pp. 217-221

in: Anders Odenstedt, Gadamer on tradition - historical context and the limits of reflection, Berlin, Springer, 2017

Abstract

Gadamer asserts, in a passage that I have already quoted, that contextually induced presuppositions "occupy the interpreter's consciousness" and that they are not at "free disposal." This claim might be understood as saying that these presuppositions cannot be discarded. If this interpretation is correct, the claim perhaps says that one must use them without being able to shed them altogether but that one need not uncritically affirm them in so doing. However, this interpretation is not obvious insofar as one may rather understand the claim that presuppositions "occupy the interpreter's consciousness" as saying that they are uncritically affirmed. The claim may even be understood as saying that they are to some extent unconscious. A further complexity here is that there are different ways of understanding the scope of awareness and critique of presuppositions. Even if all presuppositions cannot be simultaneously either criticized or brought to awareness, this would not seem to exclude the possibility that each one of them may be treated in both of these ways. Gadamer's claims offer, this wide range of possible interpretations quite frequently.