The German volume ""Gadamer Lesebuch"" [A Gadamer Reader] (1997), selected and edited by Jean Grondin in consultation with Hans-Georg Gadamer himself, contains a set of essays that present a cross section of writings by one of the twentieth century's greatest philosophers. The volume begins with an autobiographical sketch and culminates in a conversation with Jean Grondin that looks back over a lifetime of productive philosophical work. The essays not already available in English have here been translated by Richard E. Palmer, a respected translator of Gadamer's writings. The sixteen essays contained in the Lesebuch are augmented here by three other essays: Gadamer's last essay on Derrida, ""Hermeneutics Tracking the Trace"" (1994) and two essays on practical philosophy. ""The Gadamer Reader: A Bouquet of the Later Writings"" richly conveys the scope and depth of Gadamer's thought, covering the range of his work in hermeneutics, aesthetics, practical philosophy, and essays on Plato, Hegel, and Heidegger. In addition, Palmer offers introductory remarks before each essay that explain its importance in the context of Gadamer's writings and define its key terms. Throughout, in both his translation and commentary, his aim is to make this critically important philosopher as clear and accessible as possible to an English-speaking audience.
PREFACE BY RICHARD E. PALMER; 1. Autobiographical Reflections; I. DEFINING THE IDEA OF A PHILOSOPHICAL HERMENEUTICS; 2. Classical and Philosophical Hermeneutics; 3. The Universality of the Hermeneutical Problem; 4. Language and Understanding; 5. Hermeneutics Tracking the Trace; II. HERMENEUTICS, ART, AND POETRY; 6. Aesthetics and Hermeneutics; 7. On the Truth of the Word; 8. Text and Interpretation; 9. The Artwork in Word and Image; 10. From Word to Concept; III. HERMENEUTICS AND PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY; 11. Hermeneutics as Practical Philosophy; 12. Hermeneutics as a Theoretical and Practical Task; 13. Greek Philosophy and Modern Thinking; 14. On the Possibility of a Philosophical Ethics; IV. GADAMER ON PLATO, HEGEL, AND HEIDEGGER; 15. Plato as Portraitist; 16. The Heritage of Hegel; 17. Heidegger and the Language of Metaphysics; 18. Hermeneutics and the Ontological Difference; CONCLUSION; 19. Gadamer in a Dialogical Review of His Writings with Jean Grondin.
