Wilhelm Dilthey

World humanities - Towards an ontology of policy

“…Dilthey makes this distinction by framing the natural sciences as the realm of causality, and as such its role is explanation of these causal mechanisms. The humanities, in contrast, focus on lived experiences, expressions, and so its role is to develop understanding (Dilthey, 2002: 13; see also Makkreel, 2021). This moves focus away from questions of epistemology as what is being said, or how is it being said, and towards the question of being and becoming, or ontology, of the humanities.…”

The importance of qualitative research for investigating causation.

“…Dilthey is best known for the way he distinguished between the natural and human sciences : : : . Whereas the main task of the natural sciences as Dilthey found them was to arrive at law-based causal explanations, he projected the core task of the human sciences to be that of providing an understanding of the organizational structures and dynamic forces of human and historical life (Makkreel, 2021) Winch similarly argued that "the notion of a human society involves a scheme of concepts which is logically incompatible with the kinds of explanation offered in the natural sciences." (Winch, 1958, p. 72) More recently, Howe (2011) accepted the concept of causation in qualitative research but maintained that the causation of intentional phenomena (which he labeled "I-causation") is fundamentally different from that of natural phenomena (N-causation).…”

“…Despite these arguments that meanings can be causal, the distinction between “meaning” and “cause” explanations by Wilhelm Dilthey, Peter Winch, and other social scientists and philosophers has been far more influential in qualitative research:Dilthey is best known for the way he distinguished between the natural and human sciences …. Whereas the main task of the natural sciences as Dilthey found them was to arrive at law-based causal explanations, he projected the core task of the human sciences to be that of providing an understanding of the organizational structures and dynamic forces of human and historical life (Makkreel, 2021)…”

“…Dilthey is best known for the way he distinguished between the natural and human sciences …. Whereas the main task of the natural sciences as Dilthey found them was to arrive at law-based causal explanations, he projected the core task of the human sciences to be that of providing an understanding of the organizational structures and dynamic forces of human and historical life (Makkreel, 2021)…”

Kantian anthropology: a science like no other

“…Indeed, in the last sentence of the Preface he refers to "the growth of Wissenschaft for the common good" (Anth, AA 07: 122), and here too it is clear that he conceives anthropology as the Wissenschaft in question. Kant's repeated descriptions of anthropology as a Wissenschaft in the opening sections of his Lectures on Anthropology, particularly when read in context along with his recurrent analogies between anthropology and physics, his repeated stress on discovering laws of human behavior, etc., should give pause to recent claims that Kant conceives anthropology "as nonexplanatory," that is, as one of the human sciences "that should settle for description," 13 or that Kantian anthropology is modeled not "on physics" but rather "on the reflective model of biology" and that it does "not aim to achieve knowledge that is true or false." 14 For as we have seen, Kant himself does not describe his anthropology this way.…”