Book Reviews 191

good general bibliography in English, German and French and an excellent

index.
Though not startling in its organization or conclusions, Mueller-Vollmer's
introduction offers an overview of the texts chosen for the anthology and a
general introduction to the history of hermeneutics since the late eighteenth
century. He reads the past development of the discipline as a move from the
particular analysis of special fields (biblical, legal, philosophical) to the general
enquiry (ep is temolo gical, linguistic, ontological). He argues that any further
evolution in hermeneutics will require a reintegration of specific studies (such
as history, literary criticism, psychology or sociology) into more universal con-
cerns. His approach is thorough and straightforward.
The selections are, on the whole, judicious if necessarily brief, though I
would wish for a rather different entry into Gadamer's work. The readings would
certainly be difficult for undergraduates. The introductions can help, but they
cannot replace the hard thinking necessary to sort through complex material. If it
were possible to "interleave" the abstract analysis with the interpretation of
specific texts to show students "how" such philosophical concerns "cash out"
in criticism, the book might serve excellently for a practical and theoretic
introduction to the concerns of hermeneutics. The fact that it does not include
French (Ricoeur, Lacan, Derrida) or English (Hirsch, Bloom, de Man, Richards,
Wheelwright) contributions to interpretation theory does not make it narrow so
much as indicate that it is only one side of a cultural and intellectual debate. As a
resource book, it is a fine addition to our library.
The Catholic University of America STEPHEN HAPPEL

Gadamer's Hermeneutics: A Reading of Truth and Method. By Joel C. Wein-

sheimer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985. xiii + 278 pages. $20.00.
Weinsheimer offers us an accurate, subtle expos of Truth and Method,
placing it within context, relating it to Gadamer's other works, noting the
secondary literature when appropriate, and even illustrating Gadamer's her-
meneutics in his manner of presentation. Weinsheimer's is a close and "thick"
reading, and nicely modest. Weinsheimer knows that Gadamer is not widely
read in America, tries to explore why (Gadamer's complex hermeneutical re-
trieval of tradition and his wide openness?), and proceeds without "jumping"
steps in the argumentation. He tries hard to avoid what Gadamer's students call a
"Gad"a "certain measure of unnecessary complexity" (p. x)and he usually
succeeds.
Weinsheimer moves successively through the four issues explored in Truth
and Method. Gadamer's critique of the "methodical" urge of the natural sciences
is clearly presented as an attempt to move beyond logical positivism through an
exploration of the "truth" preserved in the humanistic tradition. Gadamer wants
to explore an historical view of truth: truth is an ongoing ground which unites
subject and object and greatly transcends the impulse of the natural sciences
toward objectification. It discloses itself through a hermeneutics of understand-
ing rather than an objectivistic process of "explaining." Weinsheimer nicely
indicates that a number of significant philosophers of scientific methodology
(Polanyi, Kuhn) have moved beyond this kind of positivism. Weinsheimer also
192 HORIZONS

seems to indicate that Gadamer isn't denying a limited value to method.

Gadamer humbles and relativizes the urge toward objectification; he does not
completely deny its place.
The "structure of alienation and return, excursion and reunion" (70), or
alternatively of transcending subject and object through the to-and-fro move-
ment of understandingthis is the hermeneutical experience implied in art, in
play, and in the humanistic tradition of Bildung (and its allies). Through the art
work, through play, through traditio we come to ourselves: "... all play is a
being played" (103). Weinsheimer nicely explores this second theme in Gadamer
of the hermeneutical experience implied in aesthetic experience, and then
shows how Gadamer uses it to explore the hermeneutical act itself and to critique
the view of hermeneutics in the historicist tradition. Gadamer's rehabilitation of
tradition is especially featured: it is the moving horizon within which we dwell,
enabling us to fuse present with past. Like art or play, it "plays us," and through
that to-and-fro play of the moving tradition we find ourselves. It is like a
conversation in which one tries to "apply" the subject matter witnessed to by
tradition. Weinsheimer then moves from this third grand topic of Truth and
Method to Gadamer's final linguistic section. The fusion of horizons always
occurs through a fusion of languages, and the metaphorical process is itself the
fusing process in linguistic dress.
Weinsheimer is particularly sensitive to ontological subtleties, constantly
surfacing Gadamer's notion of Being as historical, the moving ground of the
fused horizons of past and present. The correlate to this, epistemologically, also
is constantly featured: Truth as a process of unconcealment through the great
conversation of history. Unfortunately the theological issue is not explored:
What is this "Being" which is the transcendent ground, this grand Horizon?
Weinsheimer does not take up the great debate between Gadamer and
Habermas. But Weinsheimer is careful to point out Gadamer's view that some
forms of tradition can deform as well as inform. In such cases the conversation
stalls. Weinsheimer is perhaps too thick for most undergraduates. Honors stu-
dents, graduate students, and Gadamer-followers will all greatly profit though.
Two printing errors need noting before reissuing: (1) it seems that some words or
even paragraph(s) are missing as one moves from pages 118 to 119; (2) "relict"
should be "relic" (?: p. 135).
Duquesne University WILLIAM M. THOMPSON

Guide to the Unconscious. By Natalino Caputi. Birmingham, AL: Religious

Education Press, 1984. xi + 172 pages. $14.95 (paper).
Dr. Natalino Caputi asks the question, "What is meant by the construct of the
unconscious?" There is no doubt that the term, "the unconscious," whose
popularity we owe to Freud, Jung and their followers, is still as controversial and
confusing as it ever was. What do scholars of various disciplines mean when
they use this word? To take the question even further: is there really a meaning to
be ascribed to this construct at all? Is it a noun, adjective, or adverb? Is it a place, a
process, or an abstraction?
 ^ s
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