The Origins of Objectivity in Communal Discussion. Einige Bemerkungen zu Gadamers und Davidsons Interpretationen des Philebos

Abstract

The first chapter, “Der Hintergrund von Gadamers ‘Phänomenologischen Interpretationen’, in ‘Sein und Zeit’ " (pp. 214-218) traces the origins of Gadamer’s interpretation of the "Philebus". Especially important is that Dasein is, thanks to speech (Rede), already outside of itself in the world. The second chapter, “Gadamers Dialektische Ethik” (pp. 218-222), gives a short summary of the main points of Gadamer’s interpretation. The third chapter, “Davidson’s reinterpretation of von Gadamer’s Dialektischer Ethik” (pp. 222-231), points especially to the fact that Davidson sees the “Socrates post Vlastos” in the interpretation of Gadamer at work: Because every man is already in possession of some basic truths, coherence is enough to lead to substantive truths. Davidson concludes that only in “interpersonal communication” […] “can be thought, a grasping of the fact of an objective, that is, a shared world”. Thus, Davidson sees in Gadamer’s interpretation of the “Philebus” his own theory of triangulation anticipated.