Abstract
Wilhelm Dilthey, a precursor to our modern interest in human life, supports and confirms our humanistic thinking, several generations later. He urges us to develop a new methodology that is both appropriate to our unique object of study, man as human, yet sufficiently rigorous to escape the critique of scientific skepticism. Dilthey sketches the ground plan for such a methodology. Basing his research on empirical phenomena, he nevertheless utilizes the researcher as his own instrument of interpretation, understanding, and meaning-building. Steps are then outlined to train the researcher to an acceptable level of competence. Only with a methodology of rigor and power can humanistic education escape a Utopian idealism and humanize our present technological society. The researches of Dilthey were, for their part, a pioneering work; but today's generation has not as yet made them its own. … [In the] following analysis, the issue is solely one of furthering their adoption. (Heidegger, 1962, p. 429)
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