Wilhelm Dilthey Quotes
Wilhelm Dilthey was a German philosopher and historian who devoted his career to the foundations of the human sciences, the Geisteswissenschaften, against the encroachment of natural-scientific methods. He distinguished explanation, the procedure of natural science, from understanding, the proper procedure for human and historical phenomena, and he developed a hermeneutics of lived experience as the basis for genuine knowledge of human life. The quotes below are attributed to Wilhelm Dilthey, organized by topic.
Browse Wilhelm Dilthey by topic
Wilhelm Dilthey on Knowledge
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Attributed to Wilhelm Dilthey:
“We explain nature, but we understand mental life.”
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Attributed to Wilhelm Dilthey:
“All learning is in the end the recognition of the form of one's own existence.”
Wilhelm Dilthey on Life
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Attributed to Wilhelm Dilthey:
“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.”
Wilhelm Dilthey on Mind
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Attributed to Wilhelm Dilthey:
“Reality only exists for us in the facts of consciousness.”
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Attributed to Wilhelm Dilthey:
“Understanding is the rediscovery of the I in the Thou.”