The inevitable metamorphosing of the world into a global village with several cultures contesting for relevance through dominance at different levels of cultural encounter, calls for an understanding of globalization capable of enhancing cultural synergy as a panacea to the perceived cultural imperialism that is often viewed by several schools of thoughts as the major drawback of globalization. The idea of cultural synergy calls for equality of cultures and as such can be a viable antidote to cultural imperialism. In this essay, we shall attempt a presentation of Gadamer’s threefold of understanding as a precursor to cultural synergistic approach to globalization. Gadamer’s threefold notion of understanding comprises of the hermeneutical circle that does not separate the whole from the parts or the parts from the whole; the prejudice that entails the components of judgment before an encounter and fusion of horizon that regards the past and the present inseparable in giving the interpretation. The systematic pattern of Gadamer’s threefold of understanding has the potential of solving the problem of cultural imperialism associated with globalization to an extent. The possibility is embedded in ‘understanding’ as a fundamental precondition for cultural synergy. With the aid of an analytical method, we shall present to what extent the threefold of understanding signals cultural synergistic approach to globalization as the ideal approach with viable solutions to the danger of cultural imperialism inherent in globalization, also we shall apply the hermeneutic method in line with Gadamer’s hermeneutical view. The aim of using Gadamer’s threefold of understanding is to show the practicality of the hermeneutic theory in creating new knowledge of how to overcome the loopholes of the globalized world in cultural terms. This essay recommends the threefold of understanding for cultural groups ready to establish a solid cultural synergistic approach to globalization as an antidote to the cultural imperialist aspects of globalization.
Keywords: Cultural Imperialism, Cultural Synergy, Flows, Homogenization, Modernization
