An Analysis and Critique of Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics from the View of Habermas's Critical Hermeneutics

This article aims to criticize Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics using Habermas’s critical hermeneutics. In addition to a review of the history of Hermeneutics (pre-modernity, modern and contemporary), Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics and Habermas’s critical hermeneutics are specifically addressed. Then, through the methodology of critical hermeneutics defects and flaws in Gadamer’s theory are pointed out. By introducing such new concepts as pre-understanding, hermeneutic circle, historicity of language, fusion of horizons and focusing hermeneutics on them, Gadamer opened a new chapter in the science of hermeneutics. Gadamer’s ideas about pre-judgment, authority and tradition are at the center of Habermas’s criticisms. According to Habermas, Gadamer’s hermeneutics is a conservative trend for it fails to free itself from the present authority of the tradition. Habermas resists Gadamer’s linguistic reductionism and contends that language does not contain the entirety of social process because language itself is dependent on non-lingual and authoritative systems that can change lingual systems. Habermas argues that Gadamer’s view idea pre-judgment and the authority of tradition leads to a denial of the power of thinking and rethinking in man.