Through a detailed study of Herder's Enlightenment thought, especially his philosophy of literature, Kristin Gjesdal offers a new and sometimes provocative reading of the historical origins and contemporary challenges of modern hermeneutics. She shows that hermeneutic philosophy grew out of a historical, anthropological, and poetic discourse in the mid-eighteenth century and argues that, as such, it represents a rich, stimulating, and relevant engagement with the potentials and limits of human meaning and understanding. Gjesdal's study broadens our conception of hermeneutic philosophy - the issues it raises and the answers it offers - and underlines the importance of Herder's contribution to the development of this discipline. Her book will be highly valuable for students and scholars of eighteenth-century thought, especially those working in the fields of hermeneutics, aesthetics, and European philosophy.

'Herder's hermeneutic philosophy is an important contribution to our understanding of hermeneutics as a peculiarly historical mode of philosophical practice. Gjesdal lucidly demonstrates the implications that Herder's focus on the historical dimension of language and culture has for philosophy itself, with hermeneutics emerging as a way of philosophising with particular relevance for today.' Paul Redding, University of Sydney

Kristin Gjesdal is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Temple University, Philadelphia. She is author of Gadamer and the Legacy of German Idealism (Cambridge, 2009), editor of Key Debates in Nineteenth-Century European Philosophy (2016), and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of German Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century (2015) and The Cambridge Companion to Hermeneutics (with Michael N. Forster, Cambridge, 2019).