Abstract

Gadamer‘s Hermeneutical Conception of Art Art is no arbitrary topic in Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics. Rather, it is a fundamental phenomenon, the description of which constitutes an unavoidable task of philosophy. In this article the author seeks to demonstrate the importance of art in philosophical hermeneutics, and in two major steps develops a hermeneutical conception of art. First, the author discusses the concept of the truth of art with special attention to the view that art can be described as the cognition of essence. Second, the ontology of the work of art is analyzed in detail, focusing on Gadamer’s basic idea that the work of art becomes accessible, strictly speaking, only in its presentation.