Abstract

Commonly ignored on the issue, Hans-Georg Gadamer’s contribution to the question of other animals is analyzed in this paper. Focusing on Gadamer’s phenomenological account of language and drawing from his Aristotelian and Heideggerian roots, I argue that Gadamer draws a path toward a novel reconsideration of the difference between the living and human essences, a reconsideration that brings us to the limits of λόγος and resolves itself in the ontological concept of play.