Wilhelm Dilthey

German philosopher of the human sciences — understanding against explanation

University of Berlin · Germany · d. 19 November 1833 (Biebrich, Duchy of Nassau) — 1 October 1911 (Seis am Schlern, Austria-Hungary)

A historian of ideas who argued that the human sciences need a method of their own. Where natural science explains (erklären) by law, the Geisteswissenschaften understand (verstehen) by re-living the meaning of expressions from inside. His Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften (1883) sought to ground history, law and literature in lived experience (Erleben) rather than Kant's abstract reason, and his work still frames hermeneutics and the methods of the social sciences.

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Record

Life: 19 November 1833 (Biebrich, Duchy of Nassau) — 1 October 1911 (Seis am Schlern, Austria-Hungary)
Country: Germany
Period: 19th-century Continental
Affiliation: University of Berlin
Areas: Hermeneutics, Philosophy of history, Philosophy of the human sciences
Major works: Leben Schleiermachers (1870)
Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften (1883)
Ideen über eine beschreibende und zergliedernde Psychologie (1894)
Das Erlebnis und die Dichtung (1906)
Das Wesen der Philosophie (1907)
Der Aufbau der geschichtlichen Welt in den Geisteswissenschaften (1910)
Die Typen der Weltanschauung (1911)
Key concepts: Geisteswissenschaften versus Naturwissenschaften, Verstehen (understanding), Erleben (lived experience), Ausdruck (expression), Worldviews (Weltanschauung), The hermeneutic circle
Influenced by: Friedrich Schleiermacher, Immanuel Kant, G. W. F. Hegel, Friedrich Schiller, Leopold von Ranke and the Historical School
Sources: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Wilhelm Dilthey
Wikipedia, Wilhelm Dilthey

Stories

This Day in Philosophy

Condillac, Dilthey and Goldman: knowing on 30 September and 1 October

Two calendar days gather thinkers who each moved a boundary of knowledge: Condillac, born 30 September 1714, who built a mind out of sensation; Rumi, traditionally born the same day in 1207; Claudia Card on atrocity; and, on 1 October, the death of Dilthey and the birth of Alvin Goldman, with Istvan Meszaros.

Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, Wilhelm Dilthey, Jalal al-Din Rumi

Newsroom30 September 2026