The purpose of this paper will thus be to explore the authenticity of openness, the sense in which Gadamer's conception of openness entails a notion of authenticity that is directly connected to practical, ethical concerns. In the end, this project will require that we relate openness to ethics, in a Socratic sense, as a shared striving towards the good. I believe, despite the fact that Gadamer never refers to authenticity as such in his writings, possibly in order to avoid the implications of Heidegger's Kierkegaardian account, that we can gain a better understanding of his conception of openness by relating it to Heidegger's Aristotelian account of authenticity as I have outlined it here. The hermeneutic call to openness should be read as a natural outgrowth of the nature of understanding. Guided by the principle of application, all understanding is something that occurs to us and has the structure of an experience.
Understanding is dialogical.
Its essential negativity, its experience of the Other, continually reveals to itself its own finitude, thus opening it to further experience, experience of the real. Just as Heidegger's social virtuoso has faced guilt in such a way as to resolutely take up the projects of tradition, the truly experienced person, for Gadamer, has accepted the radical finitude of the human situation in such a way as to become open to the truth of the real as it is revealed in genuine understanding. What distinguishes the person who is guided by openness is thus not what one does generally, but rather the appropriateness of one's response to each particular situation. As a condition of understanding, openness is exemplified in each particular event of understanding. The open person is thus the one who understands most readily, just as Heidegger's social virtuoso is the one who is simply able to respond appropriately to the Situation.