Andenken and tradition: Hermeneutics between Heidegger and Gadamer

Abstract

The paper exhibits the relation between Heidegger's idea of Andenken and one of the main concepts of Gadamer's hermeneutics, viz., tradition, in the following way: tradition is interpreted from Andenken. In order to clarify this relation it was necessary to present the features of tradition presented in Wahrheit und Methode. This helps to explain some of the central topics of Gadamer's hermeneutics, namely: Horizontverschmelzung, Wirkungsgeschichte, the language-like character of things and the continuity between past and present. Concerning Andenken, it is shown that this is the thought which lets the possible exist as possible, hence opening the way to an endless hermeneutics.