Dilthey, Wilhelm

Wilhelm Dilthey was a German philosopher and historian who, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, focused on understanding human experiences and cultures. He believed that to truly grasp people's thoughts, feelings, and societies, we must consider their lived experiences, language, and context. Dilthey distinguished between the natural sciences, which study objective facts, and the human sciences (like history, psychology, and sociology), which require interpretive methods to understand human meaning. His work laid the foundation for qualitative research in the human sciences, emphasizing empathy and contextual understanding over purely empirical analysis.