Abstract

After brief remarks on his childhood in Breslau, Gadamer’s philosophical-autobiographical memoir covers four periods: his time as student and Privatdozent at Marburg, his teaching at Leipzig, including two years as rector under Russian occupation, the brief interlude at Frankfurt, and the crowning years at Heidelberg, during which Wahrheit und Method was completed. Interspersed with these autobiographical reflections are personal and philosophical recollections of the intellectual greats of his time: Natorp, Scheler, Schürer, Kommerell, Reinhardt, Lipps, Jaspers, Heidegger, Krüger, and Löwith. These two themes of "the self and the other" blend together smoothly, and Gadamer’s genial character suffuses the whole.