From the perspective of mere representation, the external world always remains only a phenomenon.
Wilhelm DiltheyRead
Any theory intended to describe and analyze socio-historical reality cannot restrict itself to the human spirit and disregard the totality of human nature.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of considering all aspects of human nature when analyzing historical and social realities.
Wilhelm Dilthey asserts that any theoretical framework aimed at understanding socio-historical conditions must encompass the entirety of human existence, including emotional, social, and cultural dimensions, rather than focusing solely on abstract, intellectual aspects. This holistic approach ensures a more comprehensive grasp of the complexities of human life and its historical contexts.
In practice
In a lecture on social theory, one could quote this to emphasize the need for a holistic understanding of human behavior.
From the perspective of mere representation, the external world always remains only a phenomenon.
The 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.
The knife of historical relativism... which has cut to pieces all metaphysics and religion must also bring about healing.
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.
If there were a science of human beings it would be anthropology that aims at understanding the totality of experience through structural context.
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.
If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.
I'm especially concerned about the future of this country, because I'm concerned about the gay people of the future. We need to ensure their good life by registering to vote.
She stops, pauses, turns to the left to glance at some possible threat or irregularity, and then continues to the north. This motion, so intensely human, transcends time.
The majority of business men are not capable of an original thought, simply because they cannot escape the tyranny of reason.
Man must reconcile himself to his natural greatness.... he must not forget that he is a person.
To wait. In our lives we know joy, anger, sorrow, and a hundred other emotions, but these emotions all together occupy a bare one percent of our time. The remaining ninety-nine percent is just living in waiting. I wait in momentary expectation, feeling as though my breasts are being crushed, for the sound in the corridor of the footsteps of happiness. Empty. Oh, life is too painful, the reality that confirms the universal belief that it is best not to be born.
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