This book is an attempt to provide a systematic interpretation of Hans-Georg Gadamer's
hermeneutics in light of one of the most important interesting and debated questions of the
present age: the question concerning the role played by science and technology in shaping our
civilization. The author argues that this question lies at the heart of Gadamer's thought and
that such an approach to his philosophy might help to overcome some inveterate interpretive
prejudices like for example the idea of Gadamer as an anti-scientific and politically
authoritarian thinker. In order to clarify these points the author closely examines not only
Gadamer's 1960 masterpiece Wahrheit und Methode or his main writings (later gathered in ten
volumes of collected papers) but most of the works he published in his more than centenarian
life including many short essays lectures and interviews. Gadamer's hermeneutics is seen as
offering both an intriguing description of the main «pathologies» of the Western modern
civilization and a challenging proposal for «healing» the uneasiness and malaise of modernity
by revaluating all forms of unmethodical i.e. non-scientific experience and knowledge.
