Dilthey, Wilhelm (vĭlˈhĕlm dĭlˈtĪ) [key], 1833–1911, German philosopher. He taught at the universities of Basel, Kiel, Breslau, and Berlin. He was one of the first to claim the independence of the human sciences as distinct from the natural sciences. Dilthey laid down a foundation of descriptive and analytic psychology on which to base a study of philosophy. One of his principal works is Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften [introduction to the human studies] (1883).
See his monograph, The Essence of Philosophy (tr. 1954); study by R. A. Makkreel (1975).
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