Hans-Georg Gadamer was one of the leading figures of postwar German culture. His vast writings--collected in the ten-volume Gesammelte Werke (Collected Works, 1985-1995), with previously uncollected writings continuing to be published in book form--have significantly influenced not only philosophical discourse but other disciplines, including history, art history, and literature. While Greek philosophy and hermeneutics were the two main foci of his work, it is for his magnum opus, Wahrheit und Methode: Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik (1960; translated as Truth and Method, 1975), that he is known as the creator of modern hermeneutics. Written from his base at the University of Heidelberg, Wahrheit und Methode has been a center of discussion and critique both within Germany and in the wider world since its publication in 1960.

Hans-Georg Gadamer was born in Marburg an der Lahn on 11 February 1900 to Johanna and Johannes Gadamer. His father, a university professor in the natural...