The Reciprocal Character of Self‐Education: Introductory Comments on Hans‐Georg Gadamer’s Address ‘Education is Self‐Education’

Gadamer's address `Erziehung ist Sich-Erziehen', which follows the\udpresent essay, was presented at the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Gymnasium,\udEppelheim, on 19 May 1999, three months into his hundredth year. The\udaddress was not a scripted lecture, but rather a conversational series of\udreflections arising from summary notes that Gadamer consulted from\udtime to time as he spoke. Thus the address carries the spontaneity and\udvitality of a live event. But this also presents some difficult choices when\udit comes to publishing it in written form, something we became acutely\udaware of as we worked on our translation of the printed German\udversion. That version, published as a pamphlet in 2000, was replete with\udGadamer's asides, reminiscences, anecdotes and references to specifi-\udcally German contexts. It also included idioms and phrases which are\udquite natural in spoken German but which appear contrived or\udimprecise in written English. The temptation was strong to remove\udthese references and idioms in order to make the text more suitable to\udthe readership of a philosophical journal in the English language. But to\uddo so as a matter of course would be to do less than justice to something\udcentral to Gadamer's approach throughout his long philosophical life:\udnamely his commitment to philosophical enquiry as an invitation to\udcritical dialogue. Yet to attempt a direct translation of the German text\udmight do a greater disservice to the substance of his thoughts