Hans-Georg Gadamer

Martin Heidegger

Jean Paul-Sartre

Hannah Arendt

Ludwig Wittgenstein

1. Gadamer didn’t live in the time of National Socialism.

1. Gadamer was a complicit of the Nazis.

1. Gadamer was part of the resistance movement, as his writing underpins historical awareness and tolerance.

1. Gadamer’s political positioning regarding the Nazis is unclear.

Hierarchy and office positions

 Acknowledgment, knowledge, and trust in the superior judgment of others

Blind obedience and subjection of reason

 Arbitrary commands and irrational decisions

Tradition impedes understanding in the HS and should be disregarded.

Understanding in the HS is fundamentally tied to tradition, and tradition should be given its full value.

Tradition and understanding in the HS are completely unrelated.

The human sciences are primarily concerned with innovation and progress, disregarding tradition entirely.

It reinforces the interpreter’s pre-understanding of a text.

1. It excludes the historical interpretation of a text.

1. It isolates the parts of a text from the whole.

1. It establishes a two-way relationship between a text’s whole and its parts.

1. To develop a methodology for understanding.

1. To clarify the conditions in which understanding takes place.

To establish universal meanings of texts.

To transpose the interpreter into the author's mind.

You must consider not only the historical situatedness of the observed object, but also the historical situatedness of yourself.

1. You must detach yourself from your own historicity and understand the observed object only in its own historical context.

1. Similar as for science, you must abide by commonly agreed-upon methods to ensure objectivity.

1. Real historical thinking is not possible at all.

1. Empathy: Putting ourselves in the other’s position while disregarding our own position.

1. Observation: Perceiving the other’s position in terms of one’s own position.

1. Transposition: Recognizing both the other’s and our own particularity and rising to a higher universality.

1. None of the above.

1. Good: It enables us to understand and judge, because we are more objective.

1. Bad: It limits our understanding, because we are biased by history.

1. Both: It can help and limit understanding, underscoring the need for historical awareness.

It has no impact on understanding.