The Reciprocal Character of Self‐Education: Introductory Comments on Hans‐Georg Gadamer’s Address ‘Education is Self‐Education’

Gadamer's address `Erziehung ist Sich-Erziehen', which follows the essay, was presented at the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Gymnasium, , on 19 May 1999, three months into his hundredth year. The was not a scripted lecture, but rather a conversational series of arising from summary notes that Gadamer consulted from to time as he spoke. Thus the address carries the spontaneity and of a live event. But this also presents some difficult choices when comes to publishing it in written form, something we became acutely of as we worked on our translation of the printed German. That version, published as a pamphlet in 2000, was replete with 's asides, reminiscences, anecdotes and references to specifi- German contexts. It also included idioms and phrases which are natural in spoken German but which appear contrived or in written English. The temptation was strong to remove references and idioms in order to make the text more suitable to readership of a philosophical journal in the English language. But to so as a matter of course would be to do less than justice to something to Gadamer's approach throughout his long philosophical life: his commitment to philosophical enquiry as an invitation to dialogue. Yet to attempt a direct translation of the German text do a greater disservice to the substance of his thoughts.