Incluye referencias bibliográficas e índice.

"Providing a concise and accessible introduction to the work of the twentieth century's celebrated German philosopher, Hans-Georg Gadamer, this book focuses on the aspects of Gadamer's philosophy that have been the most influential among architects, educators in architecture, and architectural theorists. Gadamer's philosophy of art gives a special place to the activity of "play" as it occurs in artistic creation, in language, and in thinking. His ideas on the function of symbols and meaning in art draw upon his teacher, Martin Heidegger, while developing further the applicability of Heideggerian thinking. His theory of interpretation, or "philosophical hermeneutics" offers profound ways to understand the influence of the past upon the present, and to appropriate cultural history in ever newer forms. For architects, architectural theorists, architectural historians, and students in these fields, Gadamer's thought opens a world of possibilities for understanding how building today can be rich with human meaning, relating to architecture´s history in ways that do not merely repeat nor repudiate that history"--Cubierta.

1. Introduction -- "Hermeneutics" and "hermeneutic" -- Philosophical hermeneutics and the aims of architecture -- Gadamer in the context of European thought -- Plan of the book -- 2. The play of art and the art of architecture -- The problem of the subjectivization of art -- Art and "serious play" -- The speechless image and the embodied word -- The "decorative" nature of architecture -- Questions of balance -- Play as clue and instance -- 3. Historical understanding and architecture's past -- The idea of horizon -- The interpretation of texts -- Horizon and history -- Hermeneutics and history in architectural theory -- The hermeneutics of sacred architecture -- Architecture's past in present design -- 4. Humanism in the age of science -- Humanity in the emergence of the natural-scientific ideal -- Modernity and the ethical function of architecture -- Hermeneutics and the rationalization of society -- Social engineering and the city as work of art -- 5. Practical wisdom in creative collaboration -- The practical widsom tradition -- Hermeneutics in practical deliberation -- Collaboration in architectural creation -- Design as horizon -- The example of the rural studio -- Finding measure -- 6. Architecture as a way of being -- Some puzzles about being -- Heideggerian thinking of being -- Hermeneutics and Heideggerian ontology -- The ontology of building and place -- The ontology of language -- The ontology of time -- The hermeneutics of suspicion -- Transcendence and mystery -- Conclusion : THe hermeneutically minded architect.