Wilhelm Humboldt at the Origins of Dilthey Historicism

About a Book by Giancarlo Magnano San Lio

Abstract

Magnano San Lio’s research presents itself as an analysis monitored in its hermeneutic instances and aimed at building the human and scientific profile of Humboldt through his particular fields of scientific interest as objectifications of the human. This meets a real and important need, represented by a broader and more systematic research of the real and ideal relationships that exist between the philosopher from Biebrich and the major exponent of the origins of critical and problematic historicism. Magnano San Lio thus identifies a central and fundamental principle common to Humboldt and Dilthey: the idea of the whole man as an opening to anthropological reflection in continuity with the subjectivization of knowledge inaugurated by Kantian transcendentalism. Connected to this idea of individuality is also the careful analysis of Humboldt’s interest in classical antiquity, which expands in a prospective vision attentive to the development of a great national reality. Always linked to the Humboldtian connection between individuality and humanity is another theme of fundamental importance: that of the cultural formation of humanity. All this to underline how Humboldt’s entire scientific journey, even that connected to his historical-systematic investigations, has at its center the process of formation of each individual in his aspiration to fulfillment. Hence the significance acquired by anthropology as the guiding thread of the entire and articulated Humboldtian speculation.