Wilhelm Dilthey

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Ilse N. Bulhof

   Pages 1-9

3. The Human Sciences (Geisteswissenschaften)

   • Ilse N. Bulhof

   Pages 10-32

4. History as Mankind’s Memory

   • Ilse N. Bulhof

   Pages 33-54

5. Dilthey’s Hermeneutic Approach to History

   • Ilse N. Bulhof

   Pages 55-79

6. Dilthey’s Philosophy of World-Views (Weltanschauungslehre)

   • Ilse N. Bulhof

   Pages 80-109

7. The Melody of Life: Dilthey on the Meaning of History

   • Ilse N. Bulhof

   Pages 110-131

8. Personality Structure and Development: The Key to Dilthey’s Conception of History and Culture

   • Ilse N. Bulhof

   Pages 132-162

9. Structure, Development, and Progress: Dilthey’s Views on the Concrete Course of History

   • Ilse N. Bulhof

   Pages 163-192

10. Dilthey’s Importance for the Future Study of History and Culture

    • Ilse N. Bulhof

    Pages 193-195

11. Back Matter

    Pages 196-233

    PDF

Philosophy originates in man's amazement over the richness and complexity of reality. It attempts to articulate in words and con­ cepts what reality is. Starting from the recognition that this reality is experienced by all humans but experienced in many different ways, the philosopher tries to find reality's heart, its center, its hidden treasure - the tree in the middle connecting heaven and earth, the central point from which the stupendous intricacy of experience begins to make sense and from which order can become visible. To ask "what is reality?" is, indeed, to recognize that we have entered a maze. The hermeneutic philosophy of Wilhelm DiIthey (1833-1911) is the fruit of his own wanderings in this maze. Like many intellectuals of his age, he had lost faith in the Christian religion in which he was raised. In his college years, he turned from theology to philosophy, in particular, the history of philosophy and of human thought in general - wondering about the origin and value of the astounding variety of past belief systems. At the center of reality's maze he found the insight that reality as faced by man is comparable to a literary text: it "means" something to us. Reality is not a mute object, but an autonomous source of meaning, an act of self-disclosure; knowledge of reality is therefore not the product of actions per­ formed by an active subject upon a passive object, but a com­ municative interaction between two SUbjects.

• Geist
• Geisteswissenschaften
• Wilhelm Dilthey
• complexity
• concept
• experience
• future
• history of philosophy
• humans
• knowledge
• memory
• passive
• philosophy
• structure
• theology

Policies and ethics