"…Risser's book, with its reliable and insightful expositions, its tracing of the philosophical sources of Gadamer's thought, and its cogent replies to major critics, offers a guidebook to hermeneutics of enduring value both to novice and expert." — International Studies in Philosophy"…the volume is … the best introduction to philosophical hermeneutics in English and should be widely used. It firmly establishes Risser as an impeccable interpreter of Gadamer's thought." — Review of Metaphysics"In this text, Risser has heard Gadamer's own voice. Here is a study of Gadamer that presents him as neither a proto-pragmatist, nor a Heideggerian epigone, nor as a half-hearted 'post-modern' but as an independent thinker with a position of his own. Risser makes it admirably clear that although Gadamer has his roots in many of the same sources as those philosophers and philosophical positions with which his work is often confused, he nevertheless points to possibilities of interpretation of these sources that present challenging alternatives to the reigning orthodoxies. This is a work that anyone who wishes to avoid caricaturing Gadamer should read." — Brice Wachterhauser, St. Joseph's University"At last, here is a well balanced book sympathetic to Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics that deals extensively with his later writings. It carefully elucidates and clarifies key concepts in Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, beginning with the often neglected elements of finitude and facticity in Gadamer and their roots in Heidegger and culminating with a chapter on 'The Voice of the Poet,' again returning to an emphasis found in the later Heidegger. A particularly valuable dimension of the book is Risser's effort in each chapter to specify how his reading of Gadamer differs from those offered by various critics who have reproached hermeneutics on various grounds." — Richard E. Palmer, MacMurray College
