Abstract

The paper examines the role of the concepts of mediation and questioning in Gadamer's magnum opus. The focus of my interpretation is Gadamer's critique of Dilthey's assumption that historical objects have the same ontology as objects in the physical sciences - i.e., an objective ontology. Rejecting such an account of historical objects (and expanding that rejection to all objects within the social sciences), Gadamer constructs an ideal ontology that avoids the subjectivizing tendencies of historicism as well as the naive realism of empiricism. The idealistic approach thus constitutes an account of the role played by the mediation involved in the questioning that is inherent to a historical understanding of phenomena. The end result is a comprehensive theory of the historical effect present in all subjective experience.