A Hermeneutical Approach to Comparative Study of Categories in Kant and Dilthey

The epistemological problem of Kant and Dilthey is the objectivity and validity of knowledge in the natural sciences and the human sciences respectively. In this context, they undertake a critique of reason and determine the scope of the theoretical reason’s ability and the concepts applied in acquiring knowledge. However, the two philosophers disagree in different respects: Kant deals with the critique of theoretical reason and delineation of the faculty of judgment, whereas Dilthey introduces the idea of the critique of historical reason characteristic of human sciences and seeks to establish the criterion by which human sciences could be distinguished from natural sciences. To this end, both introduce the concepts and categories involved in acquiring knowledge and justify their application. In this paper, after comparing the views of the two philosophers, we have concluded that given the comprehensive nature of categories of life compared to categories of understanding, and the hermeneutical relationship between them, neither Kant's categories of understanding are equivalent, counterparts to Dilthey's categories of life, nor natural and human sciences are at one level. Rather, the relation between them is derivational one, that is, one is grounded in the other; and Dilthey attempts to discover and provide a foundation of categories of understanding and natural sciences, which are, respectively, the categories of life and human sciences.