Wilhelm Dilthey's Role in the Construction of Humanities and Defense of its Objectivity

Wilhelm Dilthey، one of the classical hermeneutic philosophers، had a great role in the development of hermeneutics. His top most roles in philosophy were to analyze hermeneutics epistemologically and to defend its value and position. Analysis of the reasons why Dilthey paid great attention to the humanities Signifies that his era coincided with complete eradication of the humanities and an unprecedented growth of experimental sciences. Therefore، as a reaction to the supremacy of natural sciences، Dilthey tried to pave the way so that humanities will be objectified and get a valuable position like natural sciences. This idea raised a very basic question in his mind “How is it possible to gain a valid، objective and definite understanding and identification in humanities as in natural sciences? After a great deal of long deliberation، Dilthey concluded that selecting a firm basis as well as a right path helped natural sciences to succeed، while humanities have neither a firm basis nor a right and definite path. Thereafter، Dilthey thought his duty was to establish humanities on the one hand and to provide it with a right path on the other hand. Due to this point، he started his work from 1883 and continued it up to the end of his life. Writing several valuable books was the result of his work in this area. The first one was “An introduction to the human science «and the last one was» Formation of the historical world in humanities. «In his first book and under the principal called» phenomentality «or» facts of consiouness «، Dilthey declined the origin of everything that exists to a mental or internal moved. he، then، based science and especially humanities on this viewpoint. To achieve his goal، he selected self-reflection and introspection procedure. But later on، he came to know that one cannot solve the objectivity problem with this sort of analysis. Therefore، changing his view، Dilthey replaced “facts of consiouness» with«the objectivity of soul”. By doing this، he intended to solve the problem of understanding and defend the value and objectivity of the humanities. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze ups and downs of what Dilthey did in this regard.