Herder, Gadamer, and 21st Century Humanities Essay -- Philosophy Relig

One of the anticipations of this Congress, namely, that of all the worlds philosophical traditions address the problems of tender life, civilization, and residence on earth, cannot be accomplished by insisting upon the essence and prescriptions of any one tradition. In this paper I address the groundwork of the Congress by considering the views of Johann Gottfried Herder and Hans-Georg Gadamer on education and history. In maliciousness of attacks on his religious loyalties, Herder supported what may today be called pluralism. Having stu hand outd history and having watched history in the making of one of its darkest moments, Gadamer a wish saw the future of the humanities in the global conversation. To educate humanity, I conclude, philosophy should first attempt to understand the existential conditions of human life. Ideen is a curious and in some ways contradictory work. Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) respect the humanistic ideals of freedom and social improvement and rec ognizes the teleological and progressive notions of historic development. But he does not confine himself to European history and sources like most others in his time and even after did. He jilted the then prevailing view that there exist some unremitting laws or standards of consciousness and behavior that are applicable to all world at all periods and in terms of which even the past should be judged. On the contrary, he argued that every historical age and culture has its deliver character and its own value. In Book 14, chapter 6 of Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (Ideas for the philosophy of the memorial of Mankind, 1784-91), he likens societies to organisms as they develop in distinctive manner and in response to the combination of environmental condi... ...Gadamer on Education, Poetry, and History. Albany SUNY Press, 1992, p. xvii(7) Gadamer. understanding in the Age of Science. Cambridge, MA M.I.T. Press, 198. p. 92(8) Aber fr die Geisteswissenschaf ten drfte es anders aussehenDas Erbe Europas. Frankfurt Suhrkamp Verlag, 1989, P.35(9) Das Erbe Europas, p. 52 . . . einer standardisierten weltzivilisation herauffhren, in der sich die Geschichte des Planeten gleichsam in Idealstatus einer rationalen Weltverwaltung stillstellt -(10) See Claude Sumner. The Source of African Philosophy The Ethiopian Philosophy of Man. Stuttgart Franz Steiner, 1986.(11) See Kwame Gyekye. An Essay on African philosophical Thought The Akan Conceptual Scheme. Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1987(12) See Paulin Hountondji. African Philosophy Myth and Reality. Bloomington indium University Press, 1983.