The Hidden Premise: Gadamer and the Crisis of Hermeneutics

What does it really mean to “understand” something?

For most people, this question seems simple. Yet in the twentieth century a German philosopher, Hans-Georg Gadamer, turned it into one of the central problems of the humanities. His influential work Truth and Method shaped modern hermeneutics—the study of interpretation—by arguing that all understanding is grounded in history, language, and tradition.

Gadamer believed that we never approach a text, an artwork, or another person as blank observers. We always carry assumptions formed by the culture we inherit. Far from being obstacles, he saw these inherited “prejudices” as the very conditions that make understanding possible.

The Hidden Premise questions this comforting picture. It suggests that Gadamer’s philosophy, despite its humanistic tone, contains an unspoken assumption: that tradition deserves trust simply because it has been handed down. This book examines the quiet authority that tradition exercises, and asks whether an appeal to “understanding” may sometimes mask an avoidance of deeper critique.

Written for listeners both inside and outside philosophy, this study introduces Gadamer’s central ideas in clear language while exploring their limitations. It shows why hermeneutics became so influential, and why its basic premises still matter today—especially in a world that often appeals to cultural identity, historical continuity, or inherited values as unquestionable foundations.

Rather than rejecting the past, The Hidden Premise invites listeners to look more closely at how our assumptions are formed and how they shape what we take to be meaningful. It offers an accessible entry into one of the major philosophical debates of the last century and encourages a more reflective relationship with tradition, interpretation, and the search for truth.