Le présent travail poursuit deux objectifs principaux, dont la visée commune consiste à clarifier le rapport de Gadamer à la phénoménologie en général et envers Husserl en particulier. Bien que l’impression fondamentalement favorable de Gadamer à l’égard de Husserl soit documentée dans la littérature secondaire, la tendance interprétative traditionnelle considère que la pratique phénoménologique dont Gadamer se réclame doit beaucoup plus à Heidegger qu’au père de la phénoménologie. En un premier geste plus « exégétique », nous nous proposons de mettre en relief les grandes lignes de l’interprétation que Gadamer propose de l’œuvre de Husserl afin de souligner la rigueur de son interprétation. Cette incursion initiale nous permettra aussi de révéler la présence d’une dette conceptuelle méconnue chez Gadamer à l’égard de la phénoménologie husserlienne, dette qui nous paraît fondamentale et qui ne doit pas être négligée dans l’économie globale de son projet philosophique. C’est pourquoi le deuxième objectif de notre projet de recherche aura pour tâche d’illustrer la productivité de ce legs conceptuel au sein du projet philosophique de Gadamer, en soulignant toutefois aussi la prise de distance critique de Gadamer par rapport à la phénoménologie husserlienne. Dans l’élaboration de son herméneutique, Gadamer développe en effet une critique « anti-subjectiviste » et « anti-fondationaliste » de la phénoménologie. Nous aurons cependant à souligner qu’il le fait afin de retourner à un sens de la phénoménologie plus en accord avec les « choses mêmes » et qui ne renie aucunement la nécessité de l’apport conceptuel de la phénoménologique husserlienne. Cela se remarquera entre autres par l’élaboration des concepts de tradition et de la fusion des horizons, mais aussi par l’élargissement du cadre du monde de la vie (Lebenswelt) pour inclure la dimension langagière. / The present study pursues two main objectives whose common aim is to highlight Gadamer’s specific relationship to phenomenology in general and to Husserl’s in particular. Although Gadamer’s fundamentally favorable impression of Husserl is well documented in the secondary literature, the traditional interpretative tendency holds that the phenomenological practice to which Gadamer refers owes much more to Heidegger than to the father of phenomenology. First, in a more exegetical gesture, we will retrace the ins and outs of Gadamer’s interpretation of Husserl’s work to highlight the rigor of his interpretation. This initial incursion will also enable us to reveal Gadamer’s conceptual debt to Husserlian phenomenology, which is fundamental and must not be overlooked in the overall economy of Gadamer’s philosophical project. Consequently, the second objective of our research project will be to illustrate the productivity of this conceptual legacy within Gadamer’s philosophical project, while also emphasizing Gadamer’s critical distance from Husserlian phenomenology. Through his affiliation with hermeneutics, Gadamer emancipates himself from the subjectivist and foundationalist bent that is ascribed to Husserl. As we will argue, however, this enables him to return to a sense of phenomenology more in line with the “things themselves”, and that in no way denies the need for conceptual input from Husserl’s phenomenology. This takes shape, among other things, through the concepts of tradition and the fusion of horizons, but also through the broadening of the framework of the lifeworld (Lebenswelt) to include the dimension of language.

The goal of the present dissertation is to display the reconstruction of the concept of understanding which has down through the history of philosophy been used as the synonym of knowing. Hence, my main intention is to focus on the Heidegger&rsquo / s and Gadamer&rsquo / s critique of epistemological conception of understanding and their reevaluation of this concept in terms of ontology. Finally, I will try to examine the similarities and dissimilarities between the philosophers and try to call attention to their emphasis on finite and historically conditioned human understanding. To fulfill the task I put forward, I shall apply to early Heidegger&rsquo / s magnum opus Being and Time (1927) and Gadamer&rsquo / s most influential book Truth and Method (1960).

The dissertation starts from the premise that we are living in an increasingly individualistic and secular society. The church is seen as a worshipping community, where mutual care emanating from true Christian community could serve as a corrective to current fragmentation. A theory is developed of the church as a caring and worshipping faith community which exists alongside other communities. The church therefore exists to enable people to embody the gospel ideals in their lives. The whole Christian community must thus be seen to be offering the love, compassion and acceptance that is needed today. This role can be enhanced by encouraging training in caring skills. The faith community exercises its nurturing support system through the fusion of horizons as members seek to give expression to their faith. This faith community functions against the background of the myriad of relationships and different communities in which its members find themselves in. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)

Taking as its central motif Hans-Georg Gadamer’s claim that “the true locus of hermeneutics is [the] in-between,” this thesis defends Gadamer’s concept of the fusion of horizons as radically interstitial against recent allegations that link his project to Romantic interpretive commensurability. Distancing Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics from both the Romantic hermeneutical approach and the incommensurabilist alternative proposed by John D. Caputo, this study reassesses Gadamer’s contributions toward understanding the other in a manner that avoids both imperious reductions and hyperbolic valorizations of the other’s alterity. Extending this discussion to cross-cultural interpretation, this thesis concludes by arguing for the fusion of horizons as a model for conceiving a new postcolonial space, irreducible to the commensurabilism of colonialism and the incommensurabilism of nativism. To this end, Gadamer is brought into discussion with Homi K. Bhabha, whose work on cultural hybridity offers a striking parallel with Gadamer’s fusion of horizons.

The dissertation starts from the premise that we are living in an increasingly individualistic and secular society. The church is seen as a worshipping community, where mutual care emanating from true Christian community could serve as a corrective to current fragmentation. A theory is developed of the church as a caring and worshipping faith community which exists alongside other communities. The church therefore exists to enable people to embody the gospel ideals in their lives. The whole Christian community must thus be seen to be offering the love, compassion and acceptance that is needed today. This role can be enhanced by encouraging training in caring skills. The faith community exercises its nurturing support system through the fusion of horizons as members seek to give expression to their faith. This faith community functions against the background of the myriad of relationships and different communities in which its members find themselves in. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Practical Theology)