Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Truth and Method Revisited: On the Very Idea of a Fusion of Horizons in Intense, Asymmetric and Intractable Conflicts Oliver Ramsbotham Abstract: This article is the second part of a two-part paper. The first part was my chapter ‘HansGeorg Gadamer’ published by the Dialogue Society in Dialogue Theories II in 2016. In the 2016 chapter, I showed how Gadamer’s ‘philosophical hermeneutics’ as expounded in his great book, Truth and Method (1960), influenced conflict resolution attempts to overcome cultural clashes and inspired the United Nations millennial ‘dialogue of civilisations’ forty years later.
This article begins with a brief recapitulation of the theme of my previous paper,1 but then moves on to a constructive critique of Gadamer’s approach in the spirit of Critical Dialogue Studies that suggests how it can be supplemented and made more effective in circumstances where otherwise it does not yet gain purchase. In the second section I look at attempts to apply Gadamerian hermeneutic conflict resolution to the most difficult cases of intense, asymmetric and as yet intractable conflict. I argue that these attempts are premature because they ignore the chief linguistic feature of such conflicts – radical disagreement. As a result, the aim to transform or prevent actual or potential conflict by promoting hermeneutic dialogue and a fusion of horizons does not yet gain traction. In the third section, I revisit Gadamer’s Truth and Method and trace the refusal to take radical disagreement seriously to the founding assumptions of his philosophical hermeneutics. I emphasise his impressive – and less well known – struggles with the very concepts of ‘the horizon’ and ‘the fusion of horizons’ that result. I end by suggesting how hermeneutic conflict resolution can be supplemented and revised in the light of this so that the ground can be prepared even in the most intransigent phases of conflict for its initiation or revival. Oliver Ramsbotham is an Emeritus Professor of Conflict Resolution, University of Bradford 1
Ramsbotham, O. (2016), ‘Hans-Georg Gadamer’ in Dialogue Theories II, ed. Omer Sener, Frances Sleep and Paul Weller, London: Dialogue Society.