Region Western Philosophy Children Wolfgang Windelband | Role Philosopher Name Wilhelm Windelband | |
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Born May 11, 1848 ( 1848-05-11 ) Potsdam, Brandenburg, Prussia Era 19th-century philosophy Main interests Metaphysics, mathematics Notable ideas the nomothetic–idiographic distinction Died October 22, 1915, Heidelberg, Germany Influenced Albert Schweitzer, Max Weber, Ernst Troeltsch Influenced by Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Johann Friedrich Herbart, Hermann Lotze Books A History of Philosophy, History of Ancient Philosophy, A History of Philosophy with Espe, Theories in Logic, Enxiridio Istorias Tis Filosofias | ||
Schools of thought Neo-Kantianism | ||
Wilhelm Windelband | Wikipedia audio article
Wilhelm Windelband (11 May 1848, Potsdam – 22 October 1915, Heidelberg) was a German philosopher of the Baden School.
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Thought
Windelband is now mainly remembered for the terms nomothetic and idiographic, which he introduced. These have currency in psychology and other areas, though not necessarily in line with his original meanings. Windelband was a neo-Kantian who protested other neo-Kantians of his time and maintained that "to understand Kant rightly means to go beyond him". Against his positivist contemporaries, Windelband argued that philosophy should engage in humanistic dialogue with the natural sciences rather than uncritically appropriating its methodologies. His interests in psychology and cultural sciences represented an opposition to psychologism and historicism schools by a critical philosophic system.
Windelband relied in his effort to reach beyond Kant on such philosophers as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Johann Friedrich Herbart and Hermann Lotze. Closely associated with Windelband was Heinrich Rickert. Windelband's disciples were not only noted philosophers, but sociologists like Max Weber and theologians like Ernst Troeltsch and Albert Schweitzer.