Larry Castellani

This paper is a philosophical exploration of the educational dimension of Hans-Georg Gadamer's ontological hermeneutics. An exposition of Gadamer's theory of the nature of understanding is carried out in terms of the experience of learning as a mode of historical existence. The categories of 'self-cultivation' and 'self-transcendence' are employed in order to describe the dynamic and structure of Gadamer's hermeneutic, and to thematize and highlight the moment of learning as an equiprimordial determination of the hermeneutic phenomenon. The concepts of "tradition", "language", "historicity", "art", "dialogue" and several of Gadamer's other major concepts are analyzed and interpreted. The historicity of learning is revealed as a critical self-transformation of self-understanding. Learning itself in its form of intentional experience is found to be the essence of Gadamer's historical hermeneutics. Hermeneutics consequently shows itself to be as much a theory of respect as well as suspicion. The experience of learning itself is interpreted as thoroughly mediated linguistically insofar as language is understood in its fully hermeneutical sense. The theory of learning is the culmination of the hermeneutic project, not as a method of understanding nor as a criterion of correct interpretation but as the structure and dynamic of openness to the other, self-disclosure and self-examination