“We do not speak in the name of reason. Anyone who speaks in the name of reason contradicts himself. For it is reasonable to acknowledge that one’s own insight is limited and for just that reason to be capable of better insights, wherever they may come from.”
The Power of Reason (1968),
trans. Chris Dawson in Praise of Theory, New Haven: Yale UP 1998, 48.
News
Honorary Membership for Jean Grondin
August 27, 2025
The Hans-Georg Gadamer Society is pleased to announce that it is conferring honorary membership upon Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Jean Grondin (Université de Montréal) on the occasion of his 70th birthday on August 27, 2025.
Jean Grondin has distinguished himself like few others as a biographer, exegete, and editor of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s work. With his major Gadamer biography (Mohr Siebeck 1999), translated into numerous languages, along with many monographic studies and collections of essays, translations, and editions—most recently the correspondence between Gadamer and Martin Heidegger (Klostermann/Mohr Siebeck 2024)—he has made a decisive contribution to keeping Gadamer’s thought alive and carrying it forward internationally.
The Hans-Georg Gadamer Society regards the conferral of honorary membership as a sign of recognition and gratitude for Jean Grondin’s outstanding scholarly achievements and his long-standing bond with Hans-Georg Gadamer.
“Law and Hermeneutics” – Second Master Class of the Hans-Georg Gadamer Society
Butenschoen-Haus, Landau | September 11–13, 2025
Led by Prof. Dr. Martin Avenarius (University of Cologne) and Prof. Dr. Dieter Teichert (University of Konstanz)
The Hans-Georg Gadamer Society invites twelve doctoral candidates and advanced Master’s students enrolled at German universities to participate in its second Masterclass, which will take place from September 11 to 13, 2025, at the Butenschoen-Haus in Landau. The event, led by Martin Avenarius and Dieter Teichert, will focus on the theme “Law and Hermeneutics.”
Key concepts of legal thought have a long and distinguished history in the tradition of ideas. In the premodern world, notions of justice and law were developed against the backdrop of broad metaphysical or anthropological frameworks. Today, such supra-positive foundations are often absent. At the same time, contemporary legal studies have become a highly specialized discipline. In this situation, is the intellectual history of legal concepts still of interest? What role can hermeneutical approaches to understanding and interpretation play in the context of law?
The Master Class will explore these and related questions through discussion of both classical and contemporary contributions to legal and philosophical theory.
Topics range from ancient philosophical reflections on justice, to challenges of legal interpretation as addressed in philosophical hermeneutics, to contemporary debates on rights and duties, the justification of norms, and the scope of international law.
Readings will include works by or on Aristotle, Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, as well as scholarly contributions by Okko Behrends, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Onora O’Neill, Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, Ernst Tugendhat, and Jürgen Habermas.
The Participants of the Master Class
Johannes Bungenstab (Technical University of Darmstadt), Paul Busch (University of Heidelberg), Ann-Christin Charles (University of Cologne), Ruben J. Dillmann (University of Cologne), Marie Goettker (University of Münster), Dr. Ariadna González (University of Zaragosa), Minuk Park (University of Heidelberg), Damon Pourzand (University of Cologne), Guram Rekhviashvili (University of Wuppertal), Rhea Riegler (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Fabian Staffel (University of Heidelberg), Lea Simmler (University of Münster), Lukas Sydow (University of Freiburg), Erika Whitney (University of Freiburg).
Honoring Barbara Cassin: Gadamer Prize Award Ceremony at Heidelberg University’s Historic Old Auditorium, February 11, 2025
Photographic Impressions
Awarding of the 2025 Gadamer Prize to Barbara Cassin
On February 11, 2025, the Hans-Georg Gadamer Society will award the 2025 Gadamer Prize to Barbara Cassin, emeritus research director at the CNRS in Paris and member of the Académie française. The public award ceremony will take place at 6:15 PM in the Old Auditorium of Heidelberg University. The laudatory speech for Barbara Cassin will be delivered by Denis Thouard (Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin).
Gadamer Grants 2023
March 13, 2023
The Gadamer Grants for the year 2023, each endowed with 2,000 euros, will be awarded to Brady DeHoust (Department of Philosophy, Texas A&M University, USA) and Antoine Pageau-St-Hilaire (The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago, USA). Brady DeHoust is recognized for his project “Hermeneutics and Transcendence. Gadamer’s Contribution to the Philosophy of Religion,” while Antoine Pageau-St-Hilaire is recognized for his research project “Ethics without Metaphysics? Gadamer’s Aristotle Between Appropriation and Critique.”
Gadamer portraits by Horst Seller
February 11, 2023
The Heidelberg physiologist and painter Professor Dr. Horst Seller has created a series of portraits in recent months, which show Hans-Georg Gadamer in his old age. With the artist’s kind permission, we reproduce three of these impressive pictures that incorporate memories of encounters and conversations the portraitist had with the subject in the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.
Knowledge and Understanding in the Humanities Today
