wilhelm dilthey

English - English

Definition of wilhelm dilthey in English English dictionary

born Nov. 19, 1833, Biebrich, Nassau, Ger. died Oct. 1, 1911, Seis am Schlern, South Tirol, Austria-Hungary German philosopher of history. Opposed to contemporary efforts to transform the methodology of the humanities and the social sciences on the model of natural science, Dilthey tried to establish these fields as interpretive sciences in their own right. Their subject matter, according to him, is the human mind, not as it is enjoyed in immediate experience nor as it is analyzed in psychological theory, but as it manifests or "objectifies" itself in languages and literatures, actions, and institutions. Dilthey emphasized that the essence of human beings cannot be grasped by introspection but only from a knowledge of all of history; this understanding, however, can never be final because history itself never is. His major work is Introduction to Human Science (1883); two influential essays are "Ideas Concerning a Descriptive and Analytical Psychology" (1894) and "The Structure of the Historical World in the Human Sciences" (1910)

Hyphenation

Wil·helm dilthey