Hans-Georg Dadamer and the Anamnetic Character of Truth
Authors: Atim Ben Carlo 
Published: October 2022

This paper attempts to provide an account of Gadamer’s conception of truth. Due to this, I attempt to venture in a path that has not been fully explored. I argue that Gadamer’s conception of truth has an anamnetic character for the following reasons: First, Gadamer views truth as an event – a disclosure or uncealment of what is hidden within the being- is part of the structure of understanding without such truth happening will not occur. Second, I will show that Gadamer’s view of truth is inseparable from his view of dialectic and understanding as these are necessary conditions of the possibility of conversation primarily characterized by his account on the hermeneutic experience, language, and tradition. Third, by looking at other salient Gadamerian concepts such as the four guiding concepts of humanism, language, understanding, and conversation, the link between truth and anamnesis is fully completed. These concepts are necessary to substantiate and support my view that indeed truth has an anamnetic character. However, I should be clear that my attempt to elucidate the anamnetic character of truth is not tantamount to trying to provide an account of the nature of truth for it is one thing to give an account of the nature of truth and another to simply provide a characterization of it.
The paper will be divided into three sections. The first section will discuss Plato’s view of anamnesis and his influence to Gadamer’s thought. The second section will be on Gadamer’s conception of truth and lastly, the concluding remarks.
References
Ackrill, John L. Essays on Plato and Aristotle. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Cooper, John M. (ed). Collected Works of Plato. Indianapolis, Cambridge: Hackett Publishing, 1997.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. The Gadamer Reader: A Bouquet of the Later Writings. Edited by Richard E. Palmer. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2007.
____________________. Truth and Method, 2nd edition. Translated by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall. New York: Continuum, 1998.
____________________. “On the Scope and Function of Hermeneutical Reflection.” Continuum 8, 1 & 2 (1970).
____________________. “The Universality of the Hermeneutical Problem.” In The Hermeneutic Tradition: From Ast to Ricoeur. Ed. Gayle L. Ormiston. New York:SUNY Press, 1989.
____________________. Gadamer in Conversation: Reflections and Commentary. Edited by Richard Palmer. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2003.
Scott, Dominic. Plato’s Meno. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Vlastos, Gregory. Studies in Greek Philosophy, vol. II. Edited by Daniel W. Graham. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Secondary Sources
Alcoff, Linda. “The Case for Coherence.” In The Nature of Truth. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2001.
Ambrosio, Francis J. “Dawn and Dusk: Gadamer and Heidegger on Truth.” Man and World, 19 (1986): 21-53.
Barthold, Lauren Swayne. “The Truth of Hermeneutics: The Self and Other in Dialogue in the Thought of Hans-Georg Gadamer.” Ph.D. Diss., Graduate Faculty of Political Science of the New School of Social Research, 2002.
Brickhouse, Thomas C. and Nicholas D. Smith. “Socrates’ Elenctic Mission.” In OxfordStudies in Ancient Philosophy vol. IX. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.
Chiurazzi, Gaetano. “Truth is More than Reality: Gadamer’s Transformational Concept of Truth.” Research in Phenomenology 41 (2011): 60-71.
Di Cesare, Donatella. Gadamer: A Philosophical Portrait. Translated by Niall Keane Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2007.
Frede, Michael. “Plato’s Arguments and the Dialogue Form.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Methods in Interpreting Plato and his Dialogues. Edited by James C. Klagge and Nicholas D. Smith. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.
Gerson, Lloyd P. Ancient Epistemology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Gettier, Edmund. “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?” Analysis vol. 23, no. 6 (June 1963): 121-123.
Glendinning, Simon. The Idea of Continental Philosophy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006.
Grondin, Jean. Introduction to Philosophical Hermeneutics. Translated by Joel Weinsheimer New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1994.
_____________. The Philosophy of Gadamer. Translated by Kathryn Plant. Chesham: Acumen Publishing, 2003.
_____________. “Gadamer’s Basic Understanding of Understanding.” In Cambridge Companion to Gadamer, ed. Robert J. Dostal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Heidegger, Martin. The Essence of Truth, trans. Ted Sadler. Maiden Lane, New York: Continuum, 2002.
Inwood, Michael. “ Truth and Untruth in Plato and Heidegger.” In Heidegger and Plato: Toward Dialogue. Edited by Catalin Partenie and Tom Rockmore. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2005.
Kahn, Charles. “ Plato on Recollection.” In A Companion to Plato. Edited by Hugh H. Benson. Malden, USA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.
Kraut, Richard. “Introduction to the Study of Plato”. In The Cambridge Companion to Plato. Edited by Richard Kraut. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
______________. “Plato.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Fall 2017 Edition. Accessed December 2, 2017, https://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=plato.
Kidder, Paulette. “Gadamer and the Platonic Eidos.” Philosophy Today 39 no. 1 (1995): 83-92.
Kirkham, Richard L. Theories of Truth: A Critical Introduction. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2001.
Leibniz, G.W. Discourse on Metaphysics, XXVI. Translated by P.G. Lucas and L. Grint. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1953.
Lynch Michael (ed.). The Nature of Truth. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2001.
Müller, Anja. “The Rediscovery of Truth.” M.A. Thesis. University of Glasgow, 1998.
Palmer, Richard E. Hermeneutics. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1969.
Rosen, Stanley. “Heidegger’s Interpretation of Plato.” In Essays in Metaphysics. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1970.
Rowe, Christopher. “Interpreting Plato.” In A Companion to Plato. Edited by Hugh H. Benson. Malden, USA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.
Schmidt, Lawrence K. Understanding Hermeneutics. Durham: Acumen, 2006.
Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology. Edited by David Ray Griffin and Donald W. Sherburne. New York: The Free Press, 1978.
Young, Charles M. “The Socratic Elenchus.” in A Companion to Plato, Edited by Hugh H. Benson. Malden, USA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.