Arvi Grotenfelt and neo-Kantian philosophy of history

Array Array

Array Array Univ. of Turku, Finland

Parole chiave: Arvi Grotenfelt, Heinrich Rickert, Neo-Kantianism, philosophy of history, philosophy of values, Wilhelm Dilthey

Abstract

The paper discusses Arvi Grotenfelt's (1863–1941), professor of philosophy in Helsinki 1905–29, reading of Heinrich Rickert's (1863–1936) philosophy of history. Rickert was one of the key figures of the so-called south-west German neo-Kantianism. In the center of attention of the south- west neo-Kantians was the topic that Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) himself had omitted: how to philosophically establish the humanities and the social sciences and separate them from the natural sciences? Rickert's philosophy of history was essentially an attempt to ground the historical knowledge in a strictly transcendental philosophy in the Kantian sense. His argumentation relied on his concept of value (Wert). Grotenfelt did not share Rickert's definition of values. According to his view, the fundamental foundation of our judgements of value is beyond scientific reasoning. I will also argue that Grotenfelt's standpoint has a general affinity to Wilhelm Dilthey's (1833–1911) philosophy of world view (Weltanschauung).

Biografia autore

Array Array, Univ. of Turku, Finland

Lauri Kallio (PhD University of Helsinki, 2017), post-doctoral researcher. His doctoral dissertation (J.V. Snellmans Philosophie der Persönlichkeit) discussed the philosophy of the most important Finnish Hegelian J.V. Snellman (1806–81) and the German Hegelianism of the 1830s. In his post-doctoral research Kallio has focused on the 19th Century idealist philosophy in Germany and in the Northern Europe. Over the past few years, he has worked in collaboration with the discipline of philosophy at the University of Turku.

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