Dilthey, Wilhelm Christian Ludwig

Philosopher

Born: 19.11.1833 in Biebrich

died: 01.10.1911 in Seis am Schlern (Tyrol)

The son of Maximilian Dilthey, who came to Biebrich as a court chaplain in 1828 and later became dean and senior court preacher in 1837, Dilthey passed his school-leaving examination at the grammar school in Wiesbaden in 1852 and studied Protestant theology in Heidelberg and Berlin. In 1856, he passed the theological state examination in Wiesbaden and a little later the philological state examination in Berlin, but was unable to decide whether to enter the church or the teaching profession.

Instead, the inclination towards philosophy awakened by Kuno Fischer and Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg led him to pursue a university career, which took him via Basel, Kiel and Breslau to Berlin in 1882, where he taught until 1905. After initially focusing primarily on Schleiermacher, he increasingly turned to philosophical and systematic topics, without neglecting the historical perspective.

Fundamental to his thinking is his turning away from a positivist, scientific approach and towards a method of knowledge based on human consciousness and experience. The history of philosophy counts him as one of the most important representatives of the philosophy of life and one of the co-founders of the humanities as an independent discipline. Psychology also received important impulses from him.

His extensive publishing activity is evidenced by the 26 volumes of his "Collected Writings", of which 20 have been published to date.

Dilthey, after whom the Dilthey School in Wiesbaden is named, is buried in Biebrich cemetery. In Biebrich, a street named after him and an inscription on the house where he was born commemorate the philosopher.