Gadamer's Metaphysics of Play

Gadamer has given very interesting analyses of “play” as a metaphor in the ontology of art. Close reading of these passages suggests that this metaphor should not be restricted to artworks and our interpretations of them. What Gadamer writes about art, its ontology and the human conditions of its understanding, is valid for everything that appears in the world and for everything that can be understood by human interpretation. The notion of “play” can thus be
elaborated towards a general ontology or metaphysics of the world as horizon within which everything appears. Although Gadamer never wanted to develop such a general metaphysics—in line with Heidegger’s efforts to overcome onto-theological metaphysics— his hermeneutical philosophy can be read as having metaphysical presuppositions that might be made explicit. This chapter aims at
such an explication of a hermeneutical metaphysics in which there is a primacy of history and world over individual human beings. The idea is that we are always already caught up in a play of relations that can never be completely surveyed, but that necessarily needs to be presupposed in all our actions and experiences.