Concepts in Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty and Gadamer

Although the concept of concept did not play a central role in twentieth-century phenomenology, what Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty thought about concepts can be inferred indirectly from what they did say about understanding, cognition and judgement. Heidegger’s approach to cognition by way of a phenomenology of assertion, for example, implies an identification of concepts with the meanings of words. Similarly, Merleau-Ponty stresses the dependence of conceptual thought on perceptual experience and bodily skill. Concepts play a more prominent role in Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics, particularly in his distinction between the essential ongoing formation of concepts in the interpretation of texts, and their methodical application in the natural sciences.