Gadamerian criticism of the methodical self-reflection of the sciences of the spirit of the 19th century

Abstract

Gadamer in his work Truth and method attempts to carry out his project of philosophical hermeneutics which includes, as crucial moment, a criticism against the scientific methodological ideal imposed by the natural sciences, and adopted by the so-called Geisteswissenschaft (sciences of spirit) in the 19th century. Taking these considerations into account, here we will show the objection that the author raises against a fundamental concept which is inferred from Vico’s philosophy. Because Truth and method shows a reproach, not only to the viquian principle verum-factum, established as the basis for the theory of knowledge developed by the neapolitan to do research on history, but also to the assumption the historicism of the 19th century makes about this same epistemological postulate.
Gadamer understands that the nineteenth-century sciences of spirit have not been able to avoid the objective-rationalist awareness that prevails as an ideal for knowledge in modern science and is imposed on the study of the historical world. As a matter of fact, the hermeneutic intention of the author is to be able to clarify the understanding phenomenon,showing that the latter is actually reflected upon every human field, i.e., it is revealed as the way of understanding and communicating that individuals adopt within social life in general.