Abstract

In this work I propose to examine the critical and ethical dimensions of Hans-Georg Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics. I undertake an analysis of the critical dimension of Gadamer's hermeneutics in order to show that his hermeneutics do not engender a radical relativism or conservativism. I undertake the elaboration of the ethical dimension in his philosophical hermeneutics in order to expand the ethical element in his work into a "hermeneutic ethics". I attempt to show that what Gadamer says about interpretation in general, particularly his analysis of the hermeneutic circle, can be brought to bear on the interpretation of ethical principles, with some very valuable results. The merit and significance of a hermeneutic account of morality lies in its incisive critique of, and its promising alternative to, the Enlightenment legacy of grounding ethics in autonomous moral reasoning, which, until very recently, has dominated moral philosophy