Wilhelm Windelband Quotes
Wilhelm Windelband was a German philosopher and historian of philosophy and the founder, with Heinrich Rickert, of the Southwest German School of neo-Kantianism. Holding chairs at Strassburg and Heidelberg, he produced an influential history of philosophy and a series of essays in which he distinguished between nomothetic disciplines, which seek general laws, and idiographic disciplines, which describe particular events. The quotes below are attributed to Wilhelm Windelband, organized by topic.
Wilhelm Windelband on Knowledge
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Attributed to Wilhelm Windelband:
“The natural sciences are nomothetic; the historical sciences are idiographic.”
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Attributed to Wilhelm Windelband:
“History deals with the singular and unique, science with the general and recurrent.”
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Attributed to Wilhelm Windelband:
“To understand Kant is to go beyond him.”
Wilhelm Windelband on Truth
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Attributed to Wilhelm Windelband:
“Philosophy is the science of the universally valid values.”
Wilhelm Windelband on Virtue
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Attributed to Wilhelm Windelband:
“The ought, not the is, is the proper object of philosophy.”