Philosophical Hermeneutics and the Question of the End of Metaphysics

The hermeneutics of the XXth century is often identifed with a certain relativism which would be marked by the end of metaphysics. According to this view, the access to the being of things is impossible because everything is interpretation. Thus, Vattimo proposes a relativistic interpretation of Gadamer’s adage “being that can be understood is language” and reminds that each language is the language of a period and culture. The purpose of this article is to question the idea of an opposition between metaphysics and hermeneutics, and to show that, on the contrary, philosophical hermeneutics can provide away of thinking the b ing renouncing the ontotheological process of control and objectifcation of the being. After pointing out that the idea of exceeding metaphysics has a metaphysical dimension, we will propose two manners of bringing closer metaphysics and hermeneutics. On one side, through his idea of “effective history”, Gadamer himself defends the impossibility to break with the metaphysical tradition. On the other side, he gives the opportunity to understand differently his sentence and, instead of reducing the being to language, he shows that language provides to it a way of manifestation. Thus, Gadamer argues that philosophical hermeneutics has not left the thought of the being.