Dal puro giudizio al “risuonare dei concetti”.Gadamer lettore dell’estetica kantiana

Abstract

This paper aims to challenge the widespread assumption that Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophy stands in strong opposition to Kantian aesthetics and to show and describe how Gadamer’s theory of art has repeatedly engaged with Kant in the very process of defining itself. First (§1), I reconstruct the argument of the opening section of Truth and Method, showing that Gadamer’s critique of Kant is not simply one-sided. I then examine (§2) how Gadamer develops insights from the Critique of Judgment in his later essay Intuition and Vividness. By engaging with Kant’s notions of genius and aesthetic idea, Gadamer outlines a theory of art as an experience of truth, thereby revising the opposition drawn in Truth and Method between an aesthetics of form (Kant) and one of content (Hegel). Finally (§3), I argue that this rethinking of Kantian aesthetics significantly affects Gadamer’s own theory of art. In his interpretation of Celan’s poetry, Gadamer explicitly claims continuity with Kantian aesthetics. In this sense, I show how Kantian influences shape central notions in Gadamer’s aesthetics and, contrary to the judgment of Truth and Method, contribute to enriching his conception of the experience of art as an experience of truth.

Keywords: Gadamerian philosophy, hermeneutical aesthetics, Kantian aesthetics, artistic Erfahrung, aesthetic ideas, interpretation