ABSTRACT
Gadamer's philosophy completes the existential–ontological theory of understanding and at the same time provides the foundation for its supercession through the emphasis on the linguisticality of understanding. Gadamer deals with the aspect under the title Wirkungsgeschichte and outlines the emergence and content of the consciousness of it. This term eludes short definitions, but Gadamer, in a brilliant analysis, evidences its structural elements. They are, awareness of one's hermeneutic situation and the 'horizon' that is characteristic of it; the dialogical relationship between interpreter and text; the dialectic between question and answer; openness for tradition. The awareness of effective-history Gadamer also identifies 'hermeneutic consciousness' as one that overarches both historical and historic consciousness. Historical consciousness recognizes different epochs which have to be understood in their own terms by attempting to enter into the position occupied by the original addressees of an author's intended meaning.
