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The Cambridge Companion to Gadamer DOSTAL, Robert J., editor. The Cambridge Companion to Gadamer. Cambridge Companions to Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. xiii + 322 pp. Cloth, $65.00; paper, $23.00-This collection of twelve essays (plus an introduction) achieves well the many objectives of the series within which it is placed: (1) It is a useful reference book, especially in light of both the beginning biography and concluding bibliography. (2) It is a "non-intimidating" introduction, particularly in regard to the three initial essays by Dostal, Grondin, and Wachter-hauser. (3) It has a great deal of interest for specialists in philosophical hermeneutics and in many other fields.
An informed biography by Dostal situates concisely Gadamer's intellectual achievements in the contexts of his life events and intellectual influences. Grondin, a Gadamer biographer himself, writes in this volume on the "core" topic of understanding. He elucidates three different meanings of understanding as they appear in Truth and Method-an intellectual grasp, a practical know-how (in the sense of "knowing one's way around"), and as agreement in the sense of "coming to an understanding"-and concludes by indicating how Gadamer and Heidegger differ with respect to the hermeneutic circle. Wachterhauser deals with an equally important topic, truth, and identifies a "hermeneutical fork" between...