Wilhelm Dilthey (; ; 19 November 1833 – 1 October 1911) was a German historian, psychologist, sociologist, and hermeneutic philosopher, who held

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy and t ...

's Chair in Philosophy at the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

. As a polymathic philosopher, working in a modern research university, Dilthey's research interests revolved around questions of scientific methodology, historical evidence and history's status as a science. Dilthey has often been considered an empiricist, in contrast to the

idealism Idealism in philosophy, also known as philosophical realism or metaphysical idealism, is the set of metaphysics, metaphysical perspectives asserting that, most fundamentally, reality is equivalent to mind, Spirit (vital essence), spirit, or ...

prevalent in Germany at the time, but his account of what constitutes the empirical and experiential differs from British empiricism and

positivism Positivism is a philosophical school that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positivemeaning '' a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. Gerber, ''Soci ...

in its central

epistemological Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowled ...

and ontological assumptions, which are drawn from German literary and philosophical traditions.

Life

Dilthey was born in 1833 as the son of a Reformed pastor in the village of Biebrich in the Duchy of Nassau, now in

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

, Germany. As a young man he followed family traditions by studying theology at Heidelberg University, where his teachers included the young Kuno Fischer. He then moved to the

and was taught by, amongst others, Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg and August Böckh, both former pupils of Friedrich Schleiermacher. In January 1864,Iris Därmann, ''Fremde Monde der Vernunft: die ethnologische Provokation der Philosophie'', Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2005, p. 285. he received his doctorate from Berlin with a thesis in Latin on Schleiermacher's ethics, and in June of the same year he also earned his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

with a thesis on moral consciousness. He became a '' Privatdozent'' at Berlin in 1865. In 1859, he edited Schleiermacher's letters and soon after he was also commissioned to write a biography—the first volume of which was eventually published in 1870. In 1867 he took up a professorship at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis''; German: ''Universität Basel'') is a public research university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest univ ...

, but later—in 1882—he returned to Berlin where he held the prestigious chair in philosophy at the university. In 1874, he married Katherine Puttmann, and the couple had one son and two daughters. He died in 1911.Makkreel, Rudolf
"Wilhelm Dilthey"
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).

Work

Hermeneutics

Dilthey took some of his inspiration from the works of Friedrich Schleiermacher on

hermeneutics Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. As necessary, hermeneutics may include the art of understanding and communication. ...

, which he helped revive. Both figures are linked to

German Romanticism German Romanticism () was the dominant intellectual movement of German-speaking countries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, influencing philosophy, aesthetics, literature, and criticism. Compared to English Romanticism, the German vari ...

. Schleiermacher was strongly influenced by German Romanticism which led him to place more emphasis on human emotion and the imagination. Dilthey, in his turn, as the author of a vast monograph on Schleiermacher, responds to the questions raised by Droysen and Ranke about the philosophical legitimation of the human sciences. He argues that 'scientific explanation of nature' (''erklären'') must be completed with a theory of how the world is given to human beings through symbolically mediated practices. To provide such a theory is the aim of the philosophy of the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

—a field of study to which Dilthey dedicated his entire academic career. The school of Romantic hermeneutics stressed that historically embedded interpreters—a "living" rather than a Cartesian dualism or "theoretical" subject—use 'understanding' and 'interpretation' (''Verstehen''), which combine individual-psychological and social-historical description and analysis, to gain a greater knowledge of texts and authors in their contexts. However, Dilthey remains distinct from other German Romantics and life philosophers through his emphasis on "historicality." Dilthey understood man as a historical being. However, history is not described in terms of an object of the past, but "a series of world views."Palmer, Richard (1969). ''Hermeneutics''. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. p. 117. Man cannot understand himself through reflection or introspection, but only through what "history can tell him…never in objective concepts but always only in the living experience which springs up out of the depths of his own being." Dilthey wants to emphasize the "intrinsic temporality of all understanding," that man's understanding is dependent on past worldviews, interpretations, and a shared world. The process of interpretive inquiry established by Schleiermacher involved what Dilthey called the hermeneutic circle—the recurring movement between the implicit and the explicit, the particular and the whole. Schleiermacher saw the approaches to interpreting sacred scriptures (for example, the Pauline epistles) and Classical texts (e.g.

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

's philosophy) as more specific forms of what he proposed as "general hermeneutics" (''allgemeine Hermeneutik''). Schleiermacher approached hermeneutics as the "art of understanding" and recognized both the importance of language, and the thoughts of an author, to interpreting a text. Dilthey saw understanding as the key for the human sciences ('' Geisteswissenschaften'') in contrast with the natural sciences. The natural sciences observe and explain nature, but the humanities understand human expressions of life. So long as a science is "accessible to us through a procedure based on the systematic relation between life, expression, and understanding" Dilthey considered it a part of the human sciences. Along with

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

Georg Simmel Georg Simmel (; ; 1 March 1858 – 26 September 1918) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic. Simmel was influential in the field of sociology. Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approach ...

and

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; ; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the traditions of analytic philosophy and continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the S ...

, Dilthey's work influenced early twentieth-century '' Lebensphilosophie'' and '' Existenzphilosophie''. Dilthey's students included Bernhard Groethuysen, Hans Lipps, Herman Nohl, Theodor Litt, Eduard Spranger, Georg Misch and Erich Rothacker. Dilthey's philosophy also influenced the religious philosopher Martin Buber. Dilthey's works informed the early

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...

's approach to hermeneutics in his early lecture courses, in which he developed a "hermeneutics of factical life," and in ''

Being and Time ''Being and Time'' () is the 1927 ''magnum opus'' of German philosopher Martin Heidegger and a key document of existentialism. ''Being and Time'' had a notable impact on subsequent philosophy, literary theory and many other fields. Though controv ...

'' (1927). But Heidegger grew increasingly critical of Dilthey, arguing for a more radical "temporalization" of the possibilities of interpretation and human existence. In ''Wahrheit und Methode'' ('' Truth and Method'', 1960), Hans-Georg Gadamer, influenced by Heidegger, criticised Dilthey's approach to hermeneutics as both overly aesthetic and subjective as well as method-oriented and "positivistic." According to Gadamer, Dilthey's hermeneutics is insufficiently concerned with the ontological event of truth and inadequately considers the implications of how the interpreter and the interpreter's interpretations are not outside of tradition but occupy a particular position within it, i.e., have a temporal horizon.

Psychology

Dilthey was interested in psychology. In his work ''Ideas Concerning a Descriptive and Analytic Psychology'' (''Ideen über eine beschreibende und zergliedernde Psychologie'', 1894), he introduced a distinction between explanatory psychology (''erklärende Psychologie''; also explanative psychology) and descriptive psychology (''beschreibende Psychologie''; also analytic psychology, ''zergliedernde Psychologie''): in his terminology, explanatory psychology is the study of psychological phenomena from a third-person point of view, which involves their subordination to a system of causality, while descriptive psychology is a discipline that attempts to explicate how different mental processes converge in the "structural nexus of

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, an ...

." The distinction is based on the more general distinction between explanatory/explanative sciences (''erklärende Wissenschaften''), on the one hand, and interpretive sciences (''beschreibende Wissenschaften'' or ''verstehende Wissenschaften'', that is, the sciences which are based on the '' Verstehen'' method), on the other—see below. In his later work (''Der Aufbau der geschichtlichen Welt in den Geisteswissenschaften'', 1910), he used the alternative term structural psychology (''Strukturpsychologie'') for descriptive psychology.

Sociology

Dilthey was also interested in what some would call

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

in the 21st century, although he strongly objected to being labelled as such, as the sociology of his time was mainly that of

Auguste Comte Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte (; ; 19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher, mathematician and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the ...

and

Herbert Spencer Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English polymath active as a philosopher, psychologist, biologist, sociologist, and anthropologist. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in '' ...

. He objected to their

dialectic Dialectic (; ), also known as the dialectical method, refers originally to dialogue between people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to arrive at the truth through reasoned argument. Dialectic resembles debate, but the ...

al/

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

ist assumptions about the necessary changes that all societal formations must go through, as well as their narrowly natural-scientific methodology. Comte's idea of

was, according to Dilthey, one-sided and misleading. Dilthey did however have good things to say about the neo-Kantian sociology of

, with whom he was a colleague at the University of Berlin. Simmel himself was later an associate of

Max Weber Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German Sociology, sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economy, political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sc ...

, the primary founder of sociological antipositivism. J. I. Hans Bakker has argued that Dilthey should be considered one of the classical sociological theorists due to his own influence in the foundation of nonpositivist ''verstehende'' sociology and the '' Verstehen'' method.

Distinction between natural sciences and human sciences

A lifelong concern was to establish a proper theoretical and methodological foundation for the "human sciences" (e.g. history, law, literary criticism), distinct from, but equally "scientific" as, the "natural sciences" (e.g. physics, chemistry). He suggested that all human experience divides naturally into two parts: that of the surrounding natural world, in which "objective necessity" rules, and that of inner experience, characterized by "sovereignty of the will, responsibility for actions, a capacity to subject everything to thinking and to resist everything within the fortress of freedom of his/her own person".W. Dilthey, ''Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften'', 1972, p. 6. Dilthey strongly rejected using a model formed exclusively from the

natural sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

(''Naturwissenschaften''), and instead proposed developing a separate model for the human sciences ('' Geisteswissenschaften''). His argument centered around the idea that in the natural sciences we seek to explain phenomena in terms of cause and effect, or the general and the particular; in contrast, in the human sciences, we seek to ''understand'' (''verstehen'') in terms of the relations of the part and the whole. In the social sciences we may also combine the two approaches, a point stressed by German sociologist

. His principles, a general theory of understanding or comprehension ('' Verstehen'') could, he asserted, be applied to all manner of interpretation ranging from ancient texts to art work, religious works, and even law. His interpretation of different theories of

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries was preliminary to his speculations concerning the form aesthetic theory would take in the twentieth century. Both the natural and human sciences originate in the context or "nexus" of life (''Lebenszusammenhang''), a concept which influenced the phenomenological account of the lifeworld (''Lebenswelt''), but are differentiated in how they relate to their life-context. Whereas the natural sciences abstract away from it, it becomes the primary object of inquiry in the human sciences. Dilthey defended his use of the term '' Geisteswissenschaft'' (literally, "science of the mind" or "spiritual knowledge") by pointing out that other terms such as "social science" and "cultural sciences" are equally one-sided and that the human mind or spirit is the central phenomenon from which all others are derived and analyzable. For Dilthey, like Hegel, ''Geist'' ("mind" or "spirit") has a cultural rather than a social meaning. It is not an abstract intellectual principle or disembodied behavioral experience but refers to the individual's life in its concrete cultural-historical context.

Weltanschauungen

In 1911, Dilthey developed a typology of the three basic '' Weltanschauungen'', or World-Views, which he considered to be "typical" (comparable to Max Weber's notion of "ideal types") and conflicting ways of conceiving of humanity's relation to

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

. * in Naturalism, represented by Epicureans of all times and places, humans see themselves as determined by nature * in the Idealism of Freedom (or Subjective Idealism), represented by

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

and

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works ...

, humans are conscious of their separation from nature by their free will * in Objective Idealism, represented by

, Baruch Spinoza, and Giordano Bruno, humans are conscious of their harmony with nature. This approach influenced

Karl Jaspers Karl Theodor Jaspers (; ; 23 February 1883 – 26 February 1969) was a German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry, and philosophy. His 1913 work ''General Psychopathology'' influenced many ...

' ''Psychology of Worldviews'' as well as Rudolf Steiner's '' Philosophy of Freedom''.

Comparison with the Neo-Kantians

Dilthey's ideas should be examined in terms of his similarities and differences with Wilhelm Windelband and Heinrich Rickert, members of the Baden School of Neo-Kantianism. Dilthey was not a Neo-Kantian, but had a profound knowledge of Immanuel Kant's philosophy, which deeply influenced his thinking. But whereas Neo-Kantianism was primarily interested in epistemology on the basis of Kant's ''

Critique of Pure Reason The ''Critique of Pure Reason'' (; 1781; second edition 1787) is a book by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, in which the author seeks to determine the limits and scope of metaphysics. Also referred to as Kant's "First Critique", it was foll ...

'', Dilthey took Kant's ''

Critique of Judgment The ''Critique of Judgment'' (), also translated as the ''Critique of the Power of Judgment'', is a 1790 book by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Sometimes referred to as the "third critique", the ''Critique of Judgment'' follows the ''Crit ...

'' as his point of departure. An important debate between Dilthey and the Neo-Kantians concerned the "human" as opposed to "cultural" sciences, with the Neo-Kantians arguing for the exclusion of psychology from the cultural sciences and Dilthey for its inclusion as a human science.

Editorial work

In 1859, Dilthey was asked to complete the editing of Schleiermacher's letters. Dilthey also inaugurated the academy edition (the ''Akademie-Ausgabe'' abbreviated as ''AA'' or ''Ak'') of Kant's writings (''Gesammelte Schriften'', Königlich-Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1902–38) in 1895, and served as its first editor. In 1906 he published ''Die Jugendgeschichte Hegels'' on the earlier Hegel's political and theological thought. Subsequently, Dilthey's student Herman Nohl analyzed the related fragments and published a volume on the Dilthey's history of German

Idealism Idealism in philosophy, also known as philosophical realism or metaphysical idealism, is the set of metaphysics, metaphysical perspectives asserting that, most fundamentally, reality is equivalent to mind, Spirit (vital essence), spirit, or ...

Bibliography

* ''The Essence of Philosophy'' (1907, originally published in German as 'Das Wesen der Philosophie') ''Wilhelm Dilthey: Selected Works'' are being published by Princeton University Press under the editorship of the noted Dilthey scholars Rudolf A. Makkreel and Frithjof Rodi. Published volumes include: * Volume I: ''Introduction to the Human Sciences'' (1989) * Volume II: ''Understanding the Human World: Selected Works of Wilhelm Dilthey'' (2010) * Volume III: ''The Formation of the Historical World in the Human Sciences'' (2002) * Volume IV: ''Hermeneutics and the Study of History'' (1996) * Volume V: ''Poetry and Experience'' (1986) * Volume VI: ''Ethical and World-View Philosophy'' (2019) ''Wilhelm Dilthey, Gesammelte Schriften'' are currently published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht: * Volume 1: ''Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften'' * Volume 2: ''Weltanschauung und Analyse des Menschen seit Renaissance und Reformation'' * Volume 3: ''Studien zur Geschichte des deutschen Geistes'' * Volume 4: ''Die Jugendgeschichte Hegels und andere Abhandlungen zur Geschichte des Deutschen Idealismus'' * Volume 5: ''Die geistige Welt'' * Volume 6: ''Die geistige Welt'' * Volume 7: ''Der Aufbau der geschichtlichen Welt in den Geisteswissenschaften'' * Volume 8: ''Weltanschauungslehre'' * Volume 9: ''Pädagogik'' * Volume 10: ''System der Ethik'' * Volume 11: ''Vom Aufgang des geschichtlichen Bewußtseins'' * Volume 12: ''Zur preußischen Geschichte'' * Volume 13: ''Leben Schleiermachers''. Erster Band * Volume 14: ''Leben Schleiermachers''. Zweiter Band * Volume 15: ''Zur Geistesgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts'' * Volume 16: ''Zur Geistesgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts'' * Volume 17: ''Zur Geistesgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts'' * Volume 18: ''Die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, der Gesellschaft und der Geschichte'' * Volume 19: ''Grundlegung der Wissenschaften vom Menschen, der Gesellschaft und der Geschichte'' * Volume 20: ''Logik und System der philosophischen Wissenschaften'' * Volume 21: ''Psychologie als Erfahrungswissenschaft'' * Volume 22: ''Psychologie als Erfahrungswissenschaft'' * Volume 23: ''Allgemeine Geschichte der Philosophie'' * Volume 24: ''Logik und Wert'' * Volume 25: ''Dichter als Seher der Menschheit'' * Volume 26: ''Das Erlebnis und die Dichtung''

Notes

External links

Dilthey-Forschungsstelle an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum
* Makkreel, Rudolf
"Wilhelm Dilthey"
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). {{DEFAULTSORT:Dilthey, Wilhelm 1833 births 1911 deaths 19th-century German essayists German male essayists 19th-century German philosophers 19th-century German Protestant theologians 19th-century German male writers 19th-century German non-fiction writers 19th-century German historians 20th-century German essayists 20th-century German philosophers 20th-century German Protestant theologians 20th-century German male writers 20th-century German historians Action theorists Empiricists German epistemologists German Calvinist and Reformed Christians German ethicists German literary critics German logicians German male non-fiction writers German sociologists Hermeneutists Heidelberg University alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Literacy and society theorists Literary theorists Metaphilosophers Ontologists People from the Duchy of Nassau People from Wiesbaden German philosophers of culture German philosophers of education Philosophers of literature Philosophers of logic German philosophers of mind Philosophers of psychology German philosophers of religion German philosophers of science Philosophers of social science German political philosophers Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Theorists on Western civilization Academic staff of the University of Basel Academic staff of the University of Breslau Academic staff of the University of Kiel Writers about religion and science