Hans Georg Gadamer: Philia, la comunità ermeneutica

The theme of philia – a Greek word that covers a semantic area not entirely overlapping with friendship or Freundschaft – has found a place in Gadamer’s reflection at least since 1928. It expresses the being-in-common that the reflection grasps as constitutive of the human but also as a task and finds its figure in what can be called the hermeneutic community. A being in common that, in fact, is fulfilled in the articulation of authentic dialogue, which allows for that mutual recognition in which philautia goes hand in hand with asserting the other even against oneself.