Gadamer's Dialectical Hermeneutics affirms the continuity between Gadamer's work on Plato and his more explicitly hermeneutical work. Lauren Swayne Barthold argues that construing Gadamer's hermeneutics as dialectical clarifies this connection. Just as Gadamer emphasizes the importance of the Platonic dialogues for grasping Plato's own thought, this book demonstrates the role of dialectic for Gadamer's own concept of understanding. Highlighting the productive and on-going nature of the dialectical tension at the heart of hermeneutics, Barthold not only underscores the influence of Plato on Gadamer, but also brings clarity to several key factors of Gadamer's hermeneutics, namely truth, good, practice, theory and dialogue. By conceiving of hermeneutics dialectically, the book also sheds light on Gadamer's own claim that hermeneutics is practical philosophy. Book jacket.