Gadamer - Ηabermas: η διαμάχη των ερμηνειών // [Gadamer - Habermas: I diamahi ton erminion] // (Gadamer - Habermas: The dispute of interpretation)

Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) is without doubt one of the greatest thinkers of the last century. His "Truth and Method" is considered one of the founding texts of "philosophical hermeneutics". Gadamer’s primary concern is to show that every genuine understanding of the world, of other people, other cultures and ourselves must be analyzed as a result of an dialogical understanding. Inspired by such a coupling between comprehension and understanding, Jurgen Habermas (born 1929) suggests in his seminal essay "The Theory of communicative action" (1981) that critical social theory should be approached based on a factual and dialogical consideration of language. At the same time, however, he disagrees with Gadamer’s effort to re-legitimate philosophical concepts of tradition, authority and prejudice, which cause philosophical hermeneutics to adopt a rather conservative political stance.
The present book examines Habermas’ objections towards philosophical hermeneutics and highlights the conditions under which philosophical hermeneutics could meet critical social theory and justify the just call for a critique of the
observed distortion in communication within modern, highly complex, societies. The main argument in this book is that Gadamer, with the seemingly challenging restoration of the concepts of tradition, authority and prejudice, does not intend to discredit critical thinking in general, but, instead, to ensure those fundamental principles by which critical social control derives its legitimacy and ultimate orientation.