Hermeneutics, Humanism, and Culture in Werner Jaeger?s ?Philologie und Historie? (1914)

Producción CyT

Artículo

Autoría

BEY, FACUNDO

Fecha

2026

Editorial y Lugar de Edición

Centros Culturales de México (Universidad Panamericana)

Revista

Tópicos. Revista de filosofía - ISSN 0188-6649
Centros Culturales de México (Universidad Panamericana)

ISSN

0188-6649

Resumen Información suministrada por el agente en SIGEVA

This article examines Werner Jaeger’s 1914 inaugural lecture at Basel, “Philologie und Historie,” as a pivotal re-imagining of classical philology as a Geisteswissenschaft. It argues that Jaeger’s intervention marked a challenge to nineteenth-century historicism and laid the conceptual groundwork for a new form of humanism. Drawing on Schleiermacher and, above all, Dilthey, Jaeger integrated scholarly rigour with hermeneutics to redefine the vocation of philology through... This article examines Werner Jaeger’s 1914 inaugural lecture at Basel, “Philologie und Historie,” as a pivotal re-imagining of classical philology as a Geisteswissenschaft. It argues that Jaeger’s intervention marked a challenge to nineteenth-century historicism and laid the conceptual groundwork for a new form of humanism. Drawing on Schleiermacher and, above all, Dilthey, Jaeger integrated scholarly rigour with hermeneutics to redefine the vocation of philology through an appeal to spiritual continuity. Central to his vision is a reconfiguration of tradition as a dynamic, interpretative process of cultural mediation. Situated within the epistemological tensions exemplified by Usener’s and Wilamowitz’s historicism, the lecture also reveals an implicit dialogue with Nietzsche’s critique of historical scholarship and Burckhardt’s reflections on cultural renaissance. The article interprets Jaeger’s address as a hermeneutic wager on the formative potential of classical scholarship, envisioning the philologist as a cultural agent bearing ethical, pedagogical, and exegetic responsibilities in times of civilisational disorientation.

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Palabras Clave

TRADITIONHUMANISMHERMENEUTICSPAIDEIAJAEGERGEISTESWISSENSCHAFTHISTORICISMBURCKHARDTCLASSICAL SCHOLARSHIPNIETZSCHE