Joined

     If you listen you will hear. " We have to go up to the building and wander round it, both inside and out" (p45) An exploration, an exploration of the symbol. We are alll limited by our thoughts, by our interpretation of art. But sometimes we transcend....this happens when we engage with art. And when this happens - our limitations - our "contingent qualities" (p44) unlock a greater dimension - we have access to the "ideal". 

      "Each and every reading will inevitably offend us in a certain sense by virtue of its contingent qualities" (p44). What he means by this is that our limitations are just that. Limitations. They hamper, they restrict. Growth is denied. He goes on to say " The process by which we liberate ourselves from such contingencies " (by taking our thoughts and liberating ourselves, opening up the symbol, taking that step.) " our contingent thoughts become more " (p44)

          REACHING THE IDEAL

        OPENING THE SYMBOL

        LIBERATING THE CONSTITUENT PARTS OF THOUGHT

     The aesthetic experience is an opening flower. It depends upon how we open the symbol. We are all limited in this sense. We open only when we can. And it is this, Gadamer claims, is the degree to which we engage with the aethetic experience. With art. And this he claims is an ongoing proces.