ABSTRACT
The historicist and hermeneutic tradition in philosophy is often seen in strong contrast to logical empiricism. But this chapter claims that in the historicist tradition, we should distinguish an earlier from a later historicism. The earlier tradition, represented by Dilthey, endorsed an objective, empirically oriented historicism and a hermeneutics based on analogical reasoning. This tradition stands in strong contrast to a later subjectivist historicism, whose hermeneutics relied on a somewhat mystical approach to intuition. It is shown that Carnap and Neurath were influenced by the earlier historicism, while both rejected the later version. Neurath studied with some of the early historicists, while the early Carnap was part of a group of young scholars strongly influenced by Dilthey’s historicism.
