Wilhelm Dilthey

Life & Legacy

Wilhelm Dilthey (; German: [ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈdɪltaɪ]; 19 November 1833 – 1 October 1911) was a German philosopher who held Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's Chair in Philosophy at the University of Berlin. As a polymathic philosopher working in the emerging modern research university, Dilthey aimed to establish the methodological foundations of the human sciences, including history, hermeneutics, and nascent psychology, in relation to the natural sciences.
Dilthey's account of what constitutes the empirical and experiential is drawn from the traditions of German philosophy and literature, and differs from British empiricism and positivism in its central epistemological and ontological assumptions. But he emphasized experience and historical evidence, and has sometimes been styled an empiricist by contrast to then prevailing idealism.