The German philosopher of hermeneutics (1900–2002), invoked here not as a McLuhan source but as one of the brilliant minds Cameron McEwen personally knew — Cameron's touchstone when he distinguishes real intellectual stature from mere reputation. Cameron befriended Gadamer in Heidelberg at the end of the 1980s, during the years he was deepening his own study of Heidegger in Meßkirch; the page holds Cameron's firsthand portrait and the story of Gadamer's Canadian teaching. Best entry point: the passage on their friendship and Gadamer's move from McMaster to Boston College.
Across the dialogues
Enters as one of the brilliant minds Cameron actually knew — the hermeneutics philosopher he sat with in Heidelberg, and a fresh case of the Canadian brain drain when McMaster lets him go
Cameron's firsthand relation to Gadamer — met in Heidelberg when Gadamer "was already 90," always the professor to Cameron's student yet a genuine friend, the two conversing in German over drinks; Cameron offers him as proof that he did know minds of the first rank up close.
"we were just good friends."
The stature Cameron sketches — an "expert in hermeneutics" who wrote "extremely influential and deep books on Plato, on Aristotle, on Hegel," student and friend of Heidegger, who "debated Jacques Derrida in French" and "remained very cogent until he was 101."
"He was a personal friend and student of Heidegger."
Gadamer as a case of the Canadian brain drain — retired from Germany, he came to teach at McMaster and would happily have stayed "for years and years," but the university "got rid of him," so he "went down and started teaching at Boston College," where he stayed as long as he liked.
"And then the stupid people in McMaster basically kicked him out."
Connections
Gadamer was "a personal friend and student of Heidegger"; Cameron's own turn to Gadamer came out of his need to know Heidegger better.
Cameron befriended Gadamer in Heidelberg at the end of the 1980s, conversing in German while Gadamer was already 90.