Gardemer, Davidson and the ground of understanding

In his contrihution to Gadamer's volume in the library of living Philosophers, Donald Davidson makes an explicit attempt, taking Plato's Philebus as his focus, to connect his own thinking with that of Gadamer in a way that, while it does not ignore possible points of difference, is also suggestive of important continuities in their approaches. In the same volume David Hoy argues that "the hermeneutic theory of interpretation can enter into a dialogue with the Davidsonian account" and attempts to "draw on some of Davidson's arguments to defend Gadamer's hermeneutic theory against its critics." Elsewhere Simon Evnine has suggested that Davidson belongs more in the company of two of Gadamer's own philosophical heroes- Plato and Hegel-"than in the company of the Vienna Circle and Quine, with their austere, anti-metaphysical scientism."In my own work I have advanced a reading of Davidson that brings him into proximity, not only with Gadamer, but also with Gadamer's teacher, Martin Heidegger.