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5. GADAMERIAN HERMENEUTICS OF MEDICINE: A PHENOMENOLOGYOF HEALTH AND ILLNESSFredrik SvenaeusGadamer and MedicineIn his preface to the collection of papers published in 1993 as Über die Verborgenheit derGesundheit, Hans-Georg Gadamer writes:It has always been a particular occasion that has prompted me to speak about problemsof health care and the art of medicine. The results are gathered together in this smallvolume. It should not be a cause for surprise if a philosopher who is neither a doctornor feels himself to be a patient nevertheless wishes to participate in the discussion concerningthe broad range of problems which arise in the field of health in the scientificand technological age. Nowhere else do the advances of modern research enter so directlyinto the sociopolitical arena of our time as they do in this area. 1Gadamer, the chief representative of modern hermeneutics, surmises here that a workconcerned with the philosophy of medicine, but written by a representative of modern hermeneutics,should come as no surprise to the reader. I suspect, however, that many readerswere indeed surprised by Gadamer’s late interest in issues of contemporary medicine andhealth care. Gadamer’s view is that, in questions of the methodology used in the humanities(Geisteswissenschaften) as opposed to the sciences (Naturwissenschaften), the latter servesas a kind of negative antithetical image to the pattern of understanding found in the humanities.Considering this, is it really possible to talk about a Gadamerian hermeneutics ofmedicine by focusing attention on the activities of contemporary health care? Consider,for example, the following quote from Truth and Method:To that extent this seems a legitimate hermeneutical requirement: we must placeourselves in the other situation in order to understand it. We may wonder, however,whether this phrase is adequate to describe the understanding that is required of us. Thesame is true of a conversation that we have with someone simply in order to get toknow him -- i.e., to discover where he is coming from and his horizon. This is not atrue conversation -- that is, we are not seeking agreement on some subject because thespecific contents of the conversation are only a means to get to know the horizon ofthe other person. Examples are oral examinations and certain kinds of conversationbetween doctor and patient. 21Hans-Georg Gadamer, The Enigma of Health: The Art of Healing in a Scientific Age, trans. JasonGaiger and Nicholas Walker (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996), vii. “Es waren stets besondere Anlässe, diemich bewogen, zu Problemen der Gesundheitspflege und der ärztlichen Kunst mich zu äußern. Die Ergebnissesind in diesem Bändchen vereinigt. Dass ein Philosoph, der weder Arzt ist noch sich als Patient fühlt,gleichwohl an der allgemeinen Problematik teilnimmt, die sich für das Gesundheitswesen im Zeitalter derWissenschaft und der Technik stellt, kann nicht verwundern. Nirgendwo treten die Fortschritte der modernenForschung so sehr in das sozialpolitische Spannungsfeld unserer Zeit wie in diesem Gebiet.” Hans-Georg Gadamer, Über die Verborgenheit der Gesundheit (Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1993), 7.2Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 2d rev. ed., trans. Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G.Marshall (New York: Continuum, 2000), 303. “Insofern scheint es eine berechtigte hermeneutische Forderung,dass man sich in den andern versetzen muss, um ihn zu verstehen. Indessen fragt es sich, ob einesolche Parole nicht gerade das Verständnis schuldig bleibt, das von einem verlangt wird. Es ist genausowie im Gespräch, das wir mit jemandem nur zu dem Zwecke führen, um ihn kennenzulernen, d. h. um169