Gadamer's Ethics of Play - by Monica Vilhauer (Hardcover)

About the Book

Gadamer's Ethics of Play examines the ethical dimensions of understanding by focusing on the concept of dialogical "play" in Hans-Georg Gadamer's Truth and Method. The book is accessible to an undergraduate audience, while also being relevant to ongoing debates among Gadamer scholars.

Book Synopsis

Gadamer's Ethics of Play examines the ethical dimensions of understanding by focusing on the concept of dialogical "play" in Hans-Georg Gadamer's Truth and Method. The book is accessible to an undergraduate audience, while also being relevant to ongoing debates among Gadamer scholars.

Review Quotes

In this engaging and lucid journey to the heart of Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, Vilhauer probes the concept of play and elucidates its rich ethical significance. She forcefully answers critics who claim that hermeneutics does not do justice to alterity, and she offers a fresh interpretation of the 'fusion of horizons.' She pursues the limits of hermeneutics and shows how we can break through the barriers of those who refuse to open themselves to genuine dialogue. This is at once an excellent introduction to hermeneutics and a strong defense of Gadamer.

Interpreters of Gadamer's account of play have typically considered it only a part of his view of aesthetic understanding. Vilhauer shows us the central role it possesses in his hermeneutics as a whole. In doing so, she puts paid to criticisms that accuse Gadamer of being insufficiently attentive to the otherness of the Other and she delineates a new ethics of openness. This is a lovely book.

About the Author

Monica Vilhauer is assistant professor of philosophy at Roanoke College.