Hans-Georg Gadamer was one of the greatest intellectual figures of the twentieth century. As a philosopher trained in phenomenology, he established philosophical hermeneutics as one of the leading traditions of contemporary philosophy and opened new paths for philosophical reflection. Within the many dimensions of Gadamer’s vast, complex, and multifaceted thinking, a special role is played by the question concerning the relevance of the various arts and the centrality of aesthetic experience in human life. Despite being one of the most relevant voices of twentieth-century philosophy, Gadamer’s hermeneutics has at times been overlooked in contemporary philosophical debates. The firm conviction at the basis of this volume is that Gadamer’s thought is still relevant today, especially regarding aesthetic questions concerning the persistent meaning and truth of art in the age of what he called ‘the shadow of nihilism’ and in the age of the so-called ‘end of art.’ In contrast to the claim that Gadamer’s philosophy is ‘anti-modern, ‘ or allegedly ‘out of date’ in comparison to other philosophical approaches to aesthetic questions,
Gadamer on Art and Aesthetic Experience aims to show that a renewed and critical confrontation with Gadamer’s aesthetic thinking can offer stimulating and penetrating insights to understand the role of art in contemporary society in all its transformations and its challenging manifestations.
Cuprins
Introduction. Gadamer on Art and Aesthetic Experience: Rethinking Hermeneutical Aesthetics Today
Stefano Marino and Elena Romagnoli
1. Gadamer’s Understanding of Art as Presentation: Study on a Key Concept of Gadamer’s Philosophy
Jean Grondin
2. Gadamer’s Hermeneutical Aesthetics as Practical Philosophy
Stefano Marino
3. The Aesthetics of the Invisible in Hans-Georg Gadamer
Mariannina Failla
4. The ‘Unshapely Form’ of the Work of Art: Parsing the Structure of an Irresolvable Paradox
John Arthos
5. Critiquing Gadamer’s Aesthetics: Hermeneutics and the Specificity of the Aesthetic
Georg W. Bertram
6. Language without Sentences: The Rhythmic Nature of Art
James Risser
7. Gadamer and Pareyson on Hermeneutics and Improvisation
Alessandro Bertinetto
8. Playing and Reading: The Performative Paradigm in Gadamer’s Aesthetics
Elena Romagnoli
9. On the Challenge of Poetry to Thought: A Gadamerian Perspective
Gert-Jan van der Heiden
10. Gadamerian Reflections on Celan and the Witness and Wounding of the Poetic Word
Cynthia R. Nielsen
List of Contributors
Author Index
Despre autor
Stefano Marino is Associate Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Bologna, Italy.
Elena Romagnoli is Junior Assistant Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Pisa, Italy.