Dilthey and descriptive psychology

pp. 153-171

in: Katherine Arens, Structures of knowing, Berlin, Springer, 1989

Abstract

In the early part of the nineteenth century in Germany, the prevailing image of psychology was that of a therapeutic discipline concerned with the spiritual care (Seelensorge)of individuals.¹As we have seen in the case of the Empiricists, however, a new question was raised with increasing frequency in the course of the century: the role of psychology as a discipline to guide and support the development of the natural sciences and the humanities. Such a suggestion was taken up with respect to the theory of knowledge and education by Herbart and Avenarius, to the question of language acquisition and change by Wilhelm von Humboldt and the Neogrammarians, and to the pure sciences by Helmholtz and Mach.²