The Tragedy of Finitude

One of the founders of modern hermeneutics, German philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) confronted the question of how modern, postmetaphysical human beings can cope with the ambivalence, contingency, and finitude that fundamentally characterise their lives. This book offers a re-evaluation and fresh analysis of Dilthey's hermeneutics of life against the background of the development of philosophy during the past two centuries.