Editing Hermeneutics (section)

==== Dilthey (1833–1911) ====
[[Wilhelm Dilthey]] broadened hermeneutics even more by relating interpretation to historical objectification. Understanding moves from the outer manifestations of human action and productivity to the exploration of their inner meaning. In his last important essay, "The Understanding of Other Persons and Their Manifestations of Life" (1910), Dilthey made clear that this move from outer to inner, from expression to what is expressed, is not based on [[empathy]], understood as a direct identification with the [[Other (philosophy)|Other]]. Interpretation, on a hermeneutical conception of empathy<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gallagher |first1=Shaun |title=Dilthey and empathy. In E. S. Nelson (ed.), Interpreting Dilthey |date=2019 |publisher=Cambridge: Cambridge University Press |pages=145–158}}</ref> involves an indirect or mediated understanding that can only be attained by placing human expressions in their historical context. Thus, understanding is not a process of reconstructing the state of mind of the author, but one of articulating what is expressed in his work.

Dilthey divided sciences of the mind ([[human sciences]]) into three structural levels: experience, expression, and comprehension.

* Experience means to feel a situation or thing personally. Dilthey suggested that we can always grasp the meaning of unknown thought when we try to experience it. His understanding of experience is very similar to that of [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenologist]] [[Edmund Husserl]].
* Expression converts experience into meaning because the discourse has an appeal to someone outside of oneself. Every saying is an expression. Dilthey suggested that one can always return to an expression, especially to its written form, and this practice has the same objective value as an experiment in science. The possibility of returning makes scientific analysis possible, and therefore the humanities may be labeled as science. Moreover, he assumed that an expression may be "saying" more than the speaker intends because the expression brings forward meanings which the individual consciousness may not fully understand.
* The last structural level of the science of the mind, according to Dilthey, is comprehension, which is a level that contains both comprehension and incomprehension. Incomprehension means, more or less, ''wrong understanding''. He assumed that comprehension produces coexistence: "he who understands, understands others; he who does not understand stays alone."