Wilhelm Dilthey

Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) was one of the most significant philosophers of the second half of the 19th century. He exerted a profound influence not only on the thought of leading 20th-century philosophers such as E. Husserl, M. Heidegger, and J. Habermas, but also on the historical, theoretical, and social sciences. His classic essay "The Genesis of Hermeneutics" played a decisive role in establishing interpretation as a central philosophical issue and in shaping hermeneutics into a distinct philosophical movement in the 20th century.