Hermeneutics and Praxis: Situatedness, Subject Transformation and Situation in Gadamer's Hermeneutics

Document Type : علمی - پژوهشی

Authors
amirreza mohammadsadegh
ahmad rajabi
The Department of Philosophy of University of Tehran, Faculty of Literature and Humanities. University of Tehran. Tehran. Iran
10.48308/kj.2026.243657.1414
Abstract
Gadamer, in “Truth and Method”, considers practical wisdom as a model for the application of understanding, which leads to the transformation of the hermeneutic subject. From the 1970s onward, in articles such as “Hermeneutics as Practical Philosophy” and the book In “Praise of Theory”, he regards hermeneutics as a form of practical philosophy whose domain is ethics, viewing praxis as the mode of action. Our central inquiry is as follows: Does praxis induce a transformation in the subject's view, perspective, and horizon merely in a theoretical sense? Or does it transform the situation and the objects of the subject's understanding in a practical sense? Or perhaps both? The crux of the debate lies in determining what, precisely, action transforms.. Vattimo sees the future of hermeneutics in its transformation into practical philosophy, whereas Davey limits it to the transformation of the subject. After and in light of the aforementioned interpretive dispute, we will turn to Gadamer in a manner that this issue itself has not been explicitly addressed by him. This article now enters the dispute by providing a detailed and hermeneutically reflective examination of the topic in Gadamer’s thought. The article seeks a fresh path in Gadamer’s philosophy, taking this interpretive dispute into account. This article, emphasizing situatedness, phronesis, and praxis, elucidates the dialectical movement between subject and situation through action. The conclusion is that action not only unifies subject and situation but also links the future of hermeneutics to practical philosophy and the future of practical philosophy to hermeneutics.
Keywords
praxis
understanding
situatedness
hermeneutic experience
dialogue
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 21 February 2026
  • Revise Date 23 June 2026
  • Accept Date 28 July 2026