Heinrich Rickert

For the politician, see Heinrich Rickert (politician).

Heinrich John Rickert (/ˈrɪkərt/; German: [ˈʁɪkɐt]; 25 May 1863 – 25 July 1936) was a German philosopher, one of the leading neo-Kantians.

Heinrich Rickert
Born	Heinrich John Rickert (1863-05-25)25 May 1863 Danzig, Prussia (now Gdańsk, Poland)
Died	25 July 1936(1936-07-25) (aged 73) Heidelberg, Germany
Education
Education	University of Berlin University of Strasbourg (PhD, 1888)
Thesis	Zur Lehre von der Definition (On the Theory of Definition) (1888)
Doctoral advisor	Wilhelm Windelband
Philosophical work
Era	19th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Neo-Kantianism (Baden school)
Institutions	University of Freiburg (1894–1915) Heidelberg (1915–1932)
Doctoral students	Bruno Bauch Martin Heidegger
Notable students	Rudolf Carnap Emil Lask
Main interests	Epistemology
Notable ideas	Qualitative distinction held to be made between historical and scientific facts Distinction between knowing (kennen) and cognizing (erkennen)[1]

Life

Rickert was born in Danzig, Prussia (now Gdańsk, Poland) to the journalist and later politician Heinrich Edwin Rickert and Annette née Stoddart. He was professor of philosophy at the University of Freiburg, Germany (1894–1915) and Heidelberg (1915–1932), where he succeeded Windelband's professorship (and Husserl succeeded Rickert's professorship at Freiburg when it was vacated).

He died in Heidelberg, Germany.

Philosophy

He is known for his discussion of a qualitative distinction held to be made between historical and scientific facts. Contrary to philosophers like Nietzsche and Bergson, Rickert emphasized that values demand a distance from life, and that what Bergson, Dilthey or Simmel called "vital values" were not true values.^{[citation needed]}

Rickert's philosophy was an important influence on the work of sociologist Max Weber. Weber is said to have borrowed much of his methodology, including the concept of the ideal type, from Rickert's work. Also, Martin Heidegger started out his academic career as Rickert's assistant, graduated with him and then wrote his habilitation thesis under Rickert.^[2]

Charles R. Bambach writes:

In his work Rickert, like Dilthey, intended to offer a unifying theory of knowledge which, although accepting a division between science and history or Natur and Geist, overcame this division in a new philosophical method. For Dilthey the method was wedded to hermeneutics; for Rickert it was the transcendental method of Kant.^[3]

Rickert, with Wilhelm Windelband, led the so-called Baden school of neo-Kantians.

Works

• Zur Lehre von der Definition [On the Theory of Definition] (1888) (doctoral thesis). Center for Research libraries, crl.edu 2nd. ed., 1915. 3rd ed., 1929.
• Der Gegenstand der Erkenntnis: ein Beitrag zum Problem der philosophischen Transcendenz (1892). Google (UCal)
  • 2nd ed., 1904: Der Gegenstand der Erkenntnis: Einführung in die Transzendentalphilosophie. Google (UMich)
• Die Grenzen der naturwissenschaftlichen Begriffsbildung. Vol. I. Freiburg i. B. und Leipzig: J. C. B. Mohr. 896–1902 – via Internet Archive. Google (NYPL) 2nd ed., 1913.
  • (in English) The Limits of Concept Formation in Natural Science (1986). (Tr. Guy Oakes.) ISBN 0-521-25139-7
• Fichtes Atheismusstreit und die kantische Philosophie (1899). Google (UCal) IA (UToronto)
• Kulturwissenschaft und Naturwissenschaft (1899). 6th/7th revised and expanded ed., 1926.
  • (in English) Science and history: A critique of positivist epistemology. Translated by George Reisman. Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand Company. 1962 – via Internet Archive.
• "Geschichtsphilosophie" in Die Philosophie im Beginn des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts (1905). 2 volumes. Vol. 2, pp. 51–135
• Die Probleme der Geschichtsphilosophie: eine Einführung, 3rd ed., 1924. New ed.: Celtis Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-944253-01-5
• Wilhelm Windelband (1915).
• Die Philosophie des Lebens: Darstellung und Kritik der philosophischen Modeströmungen unserer Zeit (1920). IA (UToronto) 2nd ed., 1922.
• Allgemeine Grundlegung der Philosophie (1921). [System der Philosophie vol. 1]
• Kant als Philosoph der modernen Kultur (1924).
• Über die Welt der Erfahrung (1927).
• Die Logik des Prädikats und das Problem der Ontologie (1930).
• Die Heidelberger Tradition in der Deutschen Philosophie (1931).
• Goethes Faust (1932).
• Grundprobleme der Philosophie: Methodologie, Ontologie, Anthropologie (1934). ISBN 3-86550-985-1
• Unmittelbarkeit und Sinndeutung (1939).