Dialogue and Hermeneutics. Language, Otherness and Truth in Gadamer's, Ricoeur's and Pareyson's Thought

The article intends to show how the question of dialogue finds a place for an instructive study of its theoretical status within the reflection of three of the main exponents of contemporary European hermeneutic thought, namely H.-G. Gadamer, P. Ricoeur and L. Pareyson. They investigate the dialogic theme, showing from distinct perspectives how it is structurally connected to the instances of language, otherness and truth. First it is analyzed Gadamer’s notion of dialogue, understood as the indefinite integration among the horizons of different interlocutors that occurs in common language. Then it is investigated the analysis conducted by Ricoeur regarding the notion of translation considered, in its relation with the implied concept of linguistic hospitality, as a reference model for dialogue among cultures and rooted in a notion of identity structurally inhabited by otherness. Lastly, it is considered the relationship, investigated by Pareyson, between the inexhaustible transcendence of truth and the multiple interpretative perspectives, connected to each other according to a dialogic relationship, where truth manifests itself. The three thinkers highlight in this way three fundamental characteristics of dialogue: language is the horizon for its realization, but above all otherness and truth seem to constitute, in particular in the wake of Pareysonian reflection, radical ontological conditions to think the pluralism that is connected to dialogue and that is an essential instance in today’s multicultural context.