Gadamer as a Leibnizian Philosopher. Hermeneutics, Synthesis, and the Fusion of Horizons

In this paper, I compare Leibniz with the twentieth-century German philosopher Hans-Georg
Gadamer and make a case for reading Gadamer as representing a model of a contemporary,
post-Idealist, Leibnizian philosopher. By drawing attention to remarks made by Gadamer
indicating an affinity between his philosophical hermeneutics and Leibniz’s project of a global
philosophical synthesis, I argue that they share an understanding of the truth as distributed
between multiple divergent viewpoints. Correspondingly, both develop approaches to
philosophy that require engaging in constructive dialogue with others. However, where
Gadamer saw Leibniz’s philosophy as aiming to produce a synthesis of finite perspectives
converging in a central point of view, Gadamer himself understood philosophy as consisting in
an ongoing and open-ended fusion of finite human horizons. By thus eliminating any central
organizing perspective, Gadamer’s approach realizes the conciliatory and synthetic spirit of
Leibniz’s philosophy in the absence of an infinite mind or perspective.