The philosopher and historian of culture Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) has had a significant and continuing influence on twentieth-century Continental philosophy and in a broad range of scholarly disciplines. Rudolf Makkreel interprets Dilthey`s philosophy and provides a guide to its complex development. Against the tendency to divorce Dilthey`s early psychological writings from his later hermeneutical and historical works, Makkreel argues for their essential continuity.