Search

The paper shows the role of the other in Gadamer's hermeneutics in the light of the idea of dialogue. Understanding requires the recognition of the other as a thou, the acceptance of the lack of distance from him and the openness to embrace what is said by him as a possible truth. Understanding has a dialectical structure that implies the cancellation of one's own expectations and the access to a more comprehensive knowledge. Even though every understanding is historical, it discloses an aspect of the thing itself which results from the interaction of the I and the thou during the process of hermeneutical conversation and constitutes a common truth that has analogous characteristics to practical reason. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]