Hermeneutics and the Study of History

Born in Biebrich, Germany, the son of a Reformed clergyman, Wilhelm Dilthey studied theology in Wiesbaden and Heidelberg but then moved to Berlin, where he turned to history and philosophy. He held professorships at Basel (1866), Kiel (1868), and Breslau (1871) before becoming Lotze's successor in Berlin (1882), where he taught until 1905. Dilthey show more wrote many essays on history, the history of philosophy, and the foundation of the human sciences (or Geisteswissen schaften, "sciences of spirit"), his contribution to which is the main source of his lasting influence. He is associated with the idea of "philosophy of life" - that lived experience is both the source and the sole subject matter of philosophy. He argued that the human sciences have an aim and method that differs from the natural sciences because they are founded not on causal explanation but on "understanding," which leads to interpretation of the meaning of lived experience. Dilthey's approach to the human studies is holistic, and he is concerned about the problem of historicism, raised by incommensurability of the life experiences and understanding of different ages. (Bowker Author Biography) show less