“Law and Hermeneutics” – Second Masterclass 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 Masterclass 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.
Applications should include a statement of motivation, a curriculum vitae, and academic transcripts (Zeugnisse or transcripts of records) and be submitted by July 15, 2025, via email to: dieter.teichert@uni-konstanz.de.
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.
Call for Proposals
November 1, 2022
For the year 2023, the Hans-Georg Gadamer Society for Hermeneutic Philosophy is awarding, in an amount of 2000 Euro each, two Gadamer Grants for the recognition and financial support of scholarly projects that deal with the published works of Hans-Georg Gadamer in a philosophically relevant fashion or that concern the non-edited portions of his unpublished papers contained in the German Literary Archive in Marbach (DLA) and in small part in the university archives of the University of Heidelberg.
Applications are open to exam candidates in courses of study at the master or magister levels who are pursuing promising thesis or essay projects as well as to doctoral students or those who have already completed their doctoral studies no more than two years ago.
Application materials may be submitted in German or in English. They should contain the following documents:
- a project description of five pages in length (1.5 spacing, font size 12 pt)
- an abstract of no more than 250 words in length
- a cover letter of no more than one page in length
- a CV in tabular form
- copies of certificates and a list of publications, if the candidate has published
- a project-related letter of recommendation from an instructor at an institute of higher education.
The grantees and the topics of their grants will be announced on 13 March 2023. It is expected that the results of the recognized projects will be published by the grantees.
Applications are to be directed per email to the president of the Hans-Georg Gadamer Society at the following address: praesident@gadamer-gesellschaft.de
Applications close on 31 January 2023.