„Es gibt keine ‚idiographische‘ Wissenschaft“ Alois Riehl und der Methodendualismus der Süd-Westdeutschen Neukantianer (Tome 144, 7e Série, n° 1-2, (2023))

What is it about?

This essay is concerned with Riehl’s engagement with empirical social and human sciences. In Riehl we have a Neo-Kantian who has so far been underexposed in this context. Riehl deserves a great deal of interest especially in connection with his rejection of the approach of the South-West German Neo-Kantians, which stems from his epistemological position. Riehl spoke out against a methodological dualism between “Geisteswissenschaften” and natural sciences and in favor of an “absence of value judgement”. Similar to Karl Lamprecht, Riehl demanded a strict separation between value-free knowledge and ideology and the implementation of a causal-genetic approach. For this reason, he emerged as an important promoter and pioneer of ethnology in Freiburg in the late 1880s, significantly promoted the philosophy of science in Berlin in the early 1900s, and finally earned merit as a promoter of experimental psychology.

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Photo by Traxer on Unsplash

Photo by Traxer on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This essay is concerned with Riehl’s engagement with empirical social and human sciences. In Riehl we have a Neo-Kantian who has so far been underexposed in this context. Riehl deserves a great deal of interest especially in connection with his rejection of the approach of the South-West German Neo-Kantians, which stems from his epistemological position. Riehl spoke out against a methodological dualism between “Geisteswissenschaften” and natural sciences and in favor of an “absence of value judgement”.