Wilhelm Windelband

Wilhelm Windelband (Template:IPAc-en; Template:IPA; 11 May 1848 – 22 October 1915) was a German philosopher of the Baden School.

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His grave in Heidelberg

Early life

Windelband was born the son of a Prussian state secretary for the Province of Brandenburg in Potsdam, Germany.Template:Sfn He studied at the University of Jena in which he attended lectures by Kuno Fischer.Template:Sfn He later studied in the university of Berlin and of Göttingen, under the direction of Hermann Lotze.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 1870 he presented his D. Phil. dissertation, which was entitled 'Die Lehren vom Zufall' (The Theories of Chance).Template:Sfn In the following year Windelband served as a soldier in the Franco-Prussian War.Template:Sfn In 1873 he returned to academia and obtained his Dr. Phil. Habil. at the University of Leipzig, which was entitled 'Die Gewissheit der Erkenntnis: eine psychologisch-erkenntnisstheoretische Studie' (On the certainty of knowledge: a psychological-epistemological study). In 1874 he married Martha Wichgraf, with whom he had four children.Template:Sfn

In 1876, Windelband became Professor of Inductive Philosophy at the University of Zurich in Switzerland.Template:Sfn In 1877, he returned to Germany, where he became Professor of Philosophy at the University of Freiburg. In 1882 he accepted an offer of a post in the then-German University of Strasbourg, where in 1894/5 and 1897/98 he became its rector.

Philosophical work

Windelband is now mainly remembered for the terms nomothetic and idiographic, which he introduced during an address which he gave in 1894 upon his installation as the Rector of the University of Strasbourg, the Third Edition of which was subsequently published as a thirty-six page booklet.<ref>Template:Harvnb, originally 1894.</ref><ref>See Template:Harvnb and Template:Harvnb for English translations of his address.</ref> The terms nomothetic and idiographic are used in psychology and elsewwhere. However, they are used differently to the ways that Windelband meant.<ref>Template:Harvnb and Template:Harvnb may be consulted about usages of both terms, while Template:Harvnb may be consulted about usages of the term idiographic.</ref>

Windelband was a neo-Kantian who argued against other contemporary neo-Kantians, maintaining that "to understand Kant rightly means to go beyond him". Against his positivist contemporaries, Windelband argued that philosophy should engage in humanistic dialogue with the natural sciences rather than uncritically appropriating its methodologies. His interests in psychology and cultural sciences represented an opposition to psychologism and historicism schools by a critical philosophic system.

Windelband relied in his effort to reach beyond Kant on such philosophers as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Johann Friedrich Herbart, and Hermann Lotze.<ref>Template:Harvnb, retrieved 29 September 2025. Template:Harvnb, retrieved 29 September 2025.</ref> Heinrich Rickert was closely associated with Windelband. Windelband's disciples were not only noted philosophers, but also sociologists like Max Weber and theologians like Ernst Troeltsch and Albert Schweitzer.

Bibliography

Books<ref>A full list of Windelband's books in German is available at The Online Books Page online books by W. Windelband (Windelband, W. (Wilheim), 1848-1915).</ref>

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• Template:Cite book<ref>Volumes 1 and 11 were reprinted in 1938 and 1979 by Macmillan.</ref>
• Template:Cite book Translated by Joseph McCabe.
• Template:Cite book Translated by Herbert Ernest Cushman.
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References

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• Template:Cite journal. Translated by Guy Oakes.
• Template:Cite journal Translated by J.T. Lamiell.

See also

• Heinz Heimsoeth

Further reading

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