Gadamer's address `Erziehung ist Sich-Erziehen', which follows the present essay, was presented at the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Gymnasium, Eppelheim, on 19 May 1999, three months into his hundredth year. The address was not a scripted lecture, but rather a conversational series of reflections arising from summary notes that Gadamer consulted from time to time as he spoke. Thus the address carries the spontaneity and vitality of a live event. But this also presents some difficult choices when it comes to publishing it in written form, something we became acutely aware of as we worked on our translation of the printed German version. That version, published as a pamphlet in 2000, was replete with Gadamer's asides, reminiscences, anecdotes and references to specifi- cally German contexts. It also included idioms and phrases which are quite natural in spoken German but which appear contrived or imprecise in written English. The temptation was strong to remove these references and idioms in order to make the text more suitable to the readership of a philosophical journal in the English language. But to do so as a matter of course would be to do less than justice to something central to Gadamer's approach throughout his long philosophical life: namely his commitment to philosophical enquiry as an invitation to critical dialogue. Yet to attempt a direct translation of the German text might do a greater disservice to the substance of his thoughts.