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Tradition: The term tradition refers to customs, habits, beliefs, rituals or practices that are passed down from generation to generation. They form the cultural heritage of a community, a family, a society or a scientific community and are often deeply rooted in the history and values of a group. See also culture, cultural tradition.
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Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

Hans-Georg Gadamer on Tradition - Dictionary of Arguments

I 285
Tradition/Gadamer: That is exactly what (...) we call tradition: to apply without justification. We do indeed owe this correction of the Enlightenment to Romanticism, that outside the grounds of reason, tradition also retains a right and determines our institutions and behaviour to a large extent.
The superiority of ancient ethics over the moral philosophy of modern times is characterized by the fact that, in view of the indispensability of tradition, it justifies the transition of ethics into "politics", the art of right legislation.(1)
By comparison, the modern Enlightenment is abstract and revolutionary. However, the concept of tradition has become no less ambiguous than the concept of >authority
, and for the same reason, namely that it is the abstract opposition to the principle of the Enlightenment that determines Romanticism's understanding of tradition. It conceives tradition as opposed to
I 286
reasonable freedom and sees in it a historical fact of the way of nature. Whether one fights it in a revolutionary way or wants to conserve it, it appears as the abstract opposite of free self-determination, since its validity does not require any reasonable reasons, but determines us without question.
Gadamer: Of course, the case of the Romantic critique of the Enlightenment is not an example of the self-evident rule of tradition, in which the traditional is preserved unbroken by doubt and criticism. Rather, it is a critical reflection of its own, which here first turns again to the truth of tradition and seeks to renew it, and which can be called traditionalism.
I 393
Tradition/Gadamer: No matter how much linguistic tradition may be relegated to the background of monuments of the visual arts, for example, its vivid immediacy may be neglected. But their lack of immediacy is not a defect. What has come to us by way of linguistic tradition is not left over, but is handed over, i.e. it is told to us (...). >Writing/Gadamer.
I 394
Bearer: The bearer of the tradition is not this manuscript as a piece from back then, but the continuity of the memory. Through it the tradition becomes a part of the own world, and so what it communicates is able to come directly to speech.


1. Vgl. Aristoteles, Eth. Nic. K 10

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Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.

Gadamer I
Hans-Georg Gadamer
Wahrheit und Methode. Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik 7. durchgesehene Auflage Tübingen 1960/2010

Gadamer II
H. G. Gadamer
The Relevance of the Beautiful, London 1986
German Edition:
Die Aktualität des Schönen: Kunst als Spiel, Symbol und Fest Stuttgart 1977


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