Any theory intended to describe and analyze socio-historical reality cannot restrict itself to the human spirit and disregard the totality of human nature.
Wilhelm DiltheyRead
From the perspective of mere representation, the external world always remains only a phenomenon.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The external world is only a representation of our perceptions and not the true essence of reality.
In this quote, Wilhelm Dilthey suggests that our understanding of the external world is limited to how we perceive and represent it, implying that there is a deeper reality that lies beyond mere observation. This highlights a philosophical viewpoint that considers the distinction between the phenomenon, or appearance of things, and the underlying essence that may be obscured by our subjective interpretation.
Themes
PerceptionRealityPhilosophyRepresentationIllusion
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussing the nature of reality and perception.
More from Wilhelm Dilthey
All quotes βThe sciences which take socio-historical reality as their subject matter are seeking, more intensively than ever before, their systematic relations to one another and to their foundation.
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The knife of historical relativism... which has cut to pieces all metaphysics and religion must also bring about healing.
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All science is experiential; but all experience must be related back to and derives its its validity from the conditions and context of consciousness in which it arises, i.e., the totality of our nature.
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If there were a science of human beings it would be anthropology that aims at understanding the totality of experience through structural context.
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The individual always realizes only one of the possibilities in his development, which could always have taken a different turning whenever he had to make an important decision.
Wilhelm DiltheyRead
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