Wilhelm Dilthey Quotes

A collection of quotes by Wilhelm Dilthey.

Wilhelm Dilthey was a renowned German philosopher, psychologist, and sociologist, known for his influential contributions to hermeneutics and the development of human sciences. He was born on November 19, 1833, in Biebrich, Germany, and passed away on October 1, 1911, in Seis am Schlern, Italy.

Dilthey's intellectual journey led him to challenge the conventional methods of natural sciences when applied to the study of human beings. He argued that understanding human experiences, such as art, history, and culture, required a different approach that he called "the human sciences" or "Geisteswissenschaften."

Throughout his career, Dilthey emphasized the importance of interpretation and understanding (Verstehen) in the social sciences. He believed that human beings could only be understood by empathetically engaging with their thoughts and expressions within their cultural and historical contexts.

Dilthey's work greatly influenced fields such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, and literary criticism. His ideas served as a basis for later philosophers and social scientists, including phenomenologists and existentialists.

Some of Dilthey's notable works include "Introduction to the Human Sciences," "Poetry and Experience," and "The Formation of the Historical World in the Human Sciences." He dedicated his life to exploring the complexities of human existence and establishing a distinct methodological framework for the study of human sciences, leaving a lasting impact on the academic world.

Thus there arose in me both a need and a plan for the founda

Thus there arose in me both a need and a plan for the foundation of the human sciences.

Wilhelm Dilthey

Science Plans

If we conceive all the changes in the physical world as redu

If we conceive all the changes in the physical world as reducible to the motion of atoms, motions generated by means of the fixed nuclear forces of those atoms, the whole of the world could thus be known by means of the natural sciences.

Wilhelm Dilthey

Change Science Force

The sciences which take socio-historical reality as their su

The sciences which take socio-historical reality as their subject matter are seeking, more intensively than ever before, their systematic relations to one another and to their foundation.

Wilhelm Dilthey

Science

If there were a science of human beings it would be anthropo

If there were a science of human beings it would be anthropology that aims at understanding the totality of experience through structural context.

Wilhelm Dilthey

Experience Science

All science is experiential; but all experience must be rela

All science is experiential; but all experience must be related back to and derives its its validity from the conditions and context of consciousness in which it arises, i.e., the totality of our nature.

Wilhelm Dilthey

Experience Nature Science

However, the sciences of society and of history retained the

However, the sciences of society and of history retained their old subservient relation to metaphysics for a long time - well into the eighteenth century.

Wilhelm Dilthey

Time Science Society History Thetimes

To attempt this would be like seeing without eyes or directi

To attempt this would be like seeing without eyes or directing the gaze of knowledge behind one's own eye. Modern science can acknowledge no other than this epistemological stand-point.

Wilhelm Dilthey

Knowledge

We can see the Divine in each speck of dust, but that doesn'

We can see the Divine in each speck of dust, but that doesn't stop us from wiping it away with a wet sponge. The Divine doesn't disappear; it's transformed into the clean surface.

We can see the Divine in each speck of dust, but that doesn'

We can see the Divine in each speck of dust, but that doesn't stop us from wiping it away with a wet sponge. The Divine doesn't disappear; it's transformed into the clean surface.

The existence of inherent limits of experience in no way set

The existence of inherent limits of experience in no way settles the question about the subordination of facts of the human world to our knowledge of matter.

Wilhelm Dilthey

Knowledge