In this historical introduction to philosophical hermeneutics, Jean Grondin disc
usses the major figures from Philo to Habermas, analyzes conflicts among various
interpretive schools, and provides a persuasive critique of Gadamer's view of h
ermeneutic history, though in other ways Gadamer's "Truth and Method" serves as
a model for Grondin's approach. Grondin begins with brief overviews of the pre-1
9th-century thinkers Philo, Origen, Augustine, Luther, Flacius, Dannhauer, Chlad
enius, Meier, Rambach, Ast, and Schlegel. Next he provides more extensive treatm
ents of such major 19th-century figures as Schleiermacher, Bockh, Droysen, and D
ilthey.
