Meandering we go on and on . . .

Today is the birthday of Wilhelm Dilthey (November 19, 1833 – October 1, 1911), historian, psychologist, sociologist and hermeneutic philosopher.

Wilhelm Dilthey is best known for the way he distinguished between the natural and human sciences.

"The human being knows itself only in history, never through introspection; indeed, we all seek it in history. Or, to put it more generally, we seek what is human in it, such as religion, and so on. We want to know what it is. If there were a science of human beings it would be anthropology that aims at understanding the totality of experience through structural context. The individual always realizes only one of the possibilities in its development, which could always have taken a different turning whenever it has to make an important decision. The human being is only given to us at all in terms of its realized possibilities."
- Wilhelm Dilthey

"Ancient metaphysics underwent many changes at the hands of medieval thinkers who brought it in line with the dominant religious and theological movements of their day."
- Wilhelm Dilthey

"A knowledge of the forces that rule society, of the causes that have produced its upheavals, and of society's resources for promoting healthy progress has become of vital concern to our civilization."
- Wilhelm Dilthey

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

"We have to make philosophy itself an object of philosophical concern."
- Wilhelm Dilthey

Dithey image source (1)