Heidegger and Gadamer on finitude, truth, and objectivity

The natures of objectivity and truth are perennial issues in philosophy. This dissertation examines the concepts of objectivity and truth worked out by Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer, both of whom insisted that these concepts must be understood on the basis of human finitude. Understood in this manner, objectivity and truth are revised in ways that at once challenge the traditional philosophical understanding of these concepts, especially as these have taken shape in the modern period, and reorient our conception of thinking and inquiry. The concept of finitude itself, however, is interpreted in a more radical way by Heidegger and Gadamer than the tradition itself has recognized. Finitude for them is marked not by mere limitations in the "faculties" of perception, cognition, and knowing, but by the thrownness of human being into an always already given historical context of meaning.;I examine first both Heidegger's and Gadamer's critiques of the traditional philosophical conceptions of objectivity and truth. In general, their criticisms are directed toward some unexamined assumptions about human nature and the relation between human understanding and the world in which we exist. Next I outline and explain the theories of human finitude held by Heidegger and by Gadamer. Following this I discuss the positive conceptions of objectivity and truth by which Heidegger and Gadamer intend to replace the traditional conceptions. Both thinkers provide us with a treatment of the nature of theory of a hermeneutic truth that underlies and sustains correspondence truth, but neither offers an explicit positive theory of objectivity. Part of my task here is to provide one, based on readings of key texts, that I believe they would endorse. I conclude by arguing that overall the philosophy of Gadamer, because of its emphasis on dialogue and its avoidance of the later Heidegger's pessimism, gives us the best alternatives to the traditional philosophical theories of objectivity and truth.;Keywords. Truth, Objectivity, Hermeneutics, Heidegger, Gadamer.