Martin Seel

Gadamer’s epilogue to the third edition of Truth and Method contains a succinct critique of the forgetfulness of language in the humanities, insofar as they fail to recognize that their investigations are aimed at a simultaneous articulation of the ,significance‘ [Bedeutsamkeit] of what is being investigated. The presentation of the questions under discussion, Gadamer argues, requires a simultaneous presentation of the perspectives from which they are treated. In this respect, Gadamer sees the constitutive role of the rhetorical use of language within and outside the sciences. His rehabilitation of rhetoric puts Gadamer at odds with Heidegger’s hierarchical understanding of language – and places him in the company of Herder, Humboldt and even Adorno. The article argues that Gadamer’s defence of rhetoric, taken literally, implies a rejection of the assumption of the primacy of language over speech and thus of an authoritarian view of language.