This book is a systematic introduction to Gadamer's work, presented with a clarity of exposition and argument that makes it rewarding to non-philosophers and philosophers alike. It is constructed around a series of debates on historicism, authorial intention, subjectivism, ideology, and the "New Pragmatism," and it pays particular attention to how Gadamer's work has been interpreted and criticized by such philosophers as Hirsch, Habermas, Apel, and Rorty. The dialogic form, which is in itself a central feature of hermeneutic theory, gives the book an immediacy that textual exegesis cannot achieve.
This is the first book in the series "Key Contemporary Thinkers," which will make available the ideas of some of the most influential philosophers of our time. The series will cut across academic disciplines and will include books on European, British and American thinkers.