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 merciful life, civilization, and residence on earth, cannot be accomplished by insisting upon the direction and prescriptions of any one tradition. In this paper I address the musical composition of the Congress by considering the views of Johann Gottfried Herder and Hans-Georg Gadamer on education and history. In antagonism of attacks on his religious loyalties, Herder supported what may today be called pluralism. Having stu authorized history and having watched history in the making of one of its darkest moments, Gadamer withal 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) see the humanistic ideals of freedom and social improvement and recognizes the teleological and progressive notions of historical development. But he does not confine himself to European history and sources akin most others in his time and even after did. He spurned the then prevailing view that there exist some changeless laws or standards of consciousness and behavior that are applicable to all adult male 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 admit character and its own value. In Book 14, chapter 6 of Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (Ideas for the philosophy of the taradiddle 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. primer coat in the Age of Science. Cambridge, MA M.I.T. Press, 198. p. 92(8) Aber fr die Geist eswissenschaften 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 inch University Press, 1983.