Abstract
Wilhelm Dilthey proposed a theory of the human sciences that includes both the humanities and the social sciences. All these disciplines have the task of understanding human interaction and productivity by focusing on the relevant contextual conditions that are in play. Understanding is an orientational process that is not merely cognitive but also engages the life of our feelings and the interests of the will. Dilthey often contrasted understanding in the human sciences with explanation in the natural sciences, but that does not mean that the human sciences never need to explain. Since the natural sciences deal primarily with external experience for which things appear to be discrete, their connectedness is hypothetical from the start. However, a human science such as psychology starts with states of mind that merge with each other from the start. This connectedness may be indeterminate and needs further analysis to understand its structural organization, but it is not hypothetical. If explanations are needed, it is for specific contextual purposes. The relation of understanding to the interpretation of objectifications of human life such as expressions and actions becomes increasingly important as Dilthey develops his hermeneutics. The historical significance of these objectifications cannot be fully understood in universal cognitive terms without also relating them to the sociocultural systems and specific epochs that frame them. Together they produce a kind of reflective knowledge that is evaluative and practical. Dilthey always thought of philosophy as more than a systematic discipline and as integrally related to the contiguous fields of religion and poetry. They all contribute to our worldview.
Rudolf Makkreel was deceased
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Makkreel, R. (2021). Diltheyan Understanding and Contextual Orientation in the Human Sciences. In: McCallum, D. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Human Sciences. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4106-3_45-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4106-3_45-1
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