Gadamer, humanism, and the humanities

This chapter highlights the role that humanism plays in Gadamer’s formulation of hermeneutics. Looking closely at the section on “The Significance of Humanism” in the opening sections of Truth and Method makes clear that Gadamer’s interest in humanism is designed to begin outlining a conception of truth that is not captured by the assumptions articulating the idea of truth in the natural sciences that have dominated the sense of truth in the humanities. Gadamer’s argument is that humanism has long preserved a sense of truth that escapes the limitation of the scientific conception and simultaneously provides clues to a sense of truth more fitting for the humanities.