German philosopher whose system of philosophical hermeneutics, derived in part from concepts of Wilhelm Dilthey (Dilthey, Wilhelm), Edmund Husserl (Husserl, Edmund), and Martin Heidegger (Heidegger, Martin), was influential in 20th-century philosophy, aesthetics, theology, and criticism.

The son of a chemistry professor, Gadamer studied the humanities at the universities of Breslau, Marburg, Freiburg, and Munich, earning his doctorate in philosophy under Heidegger at Freiburg in 1922. He lectured in aesthetics and ethics at Marburg in 1933, at Kiel in 1934–35, and again at Marburg, where he was named extraordinary professor in 1937. In 1939 he was made full professor at the University of Leipzig. He later taught at the universities of Frankfurt am Main (1947–49) and Heidelberg (from 1949). He became professor emeritus in 1968.

Gadamer's most important work, Wahrheit und Methode (1960; Truth and Method), is considered by some to be the major 20th-century philosophical statement on hermeneutical theory. His other works include Kleine Schriften, 4 vol. (1967–77; Philosophical Hermeneutics, selected essays from vol. 1–3); Dialogue and Dialectic (1980), comprising eight essays on Plato; and Reason in the Age of Science (1982), a translation of essays drawn from several German editions.