The aim of the paper is to determine to what extent the concepts of causality and finality are theoretically applicable in interpreting history from the perspective of hermeneutic philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Odo Marquard. The author demonstrates that causality and finality, in their metaphysical and epistemological sense, are subject to explicit criticism by these two authors. He also shows that, despite their explicit repudiation, the senses of those concepts are reappropriated, thus revealing their key importance in their hermeneutical conceptions. (...) The cause-and-effect relationship is being transformed into a game occurring in-between the present and the past. The finality expresses itself in three interrelated ways in: the autotelic nature of historical tradition, the task of understanding a specific tradition, and the interpretation of the current historical situation. (shrink)