Taking the old gods with us: Gadamer and the role of Verstehen in the human sciences

The human sciences have often suffered from their attempt to emulate the supposedly more objective natural sciences. The attempt to form an objective science of the human spirit or history formed the crux of the thought of Wilhelm Dilthey. The tension developed in Dilthey between the desire for an objective basis for the human sciences and insight into the nature of historical existence. This tension is developed and undergoes a significant transition in the thought of Hans-Georg Gadamer. Gadamer shows how Dilthey's attempt to make history objective ultimately led to a separation of the scientist and the community within which the scientist worked. In Gadamer's Dilthey critique there emerges a new understanding of the political responsibilities and culpabilities of scientific investigation.