Quote of the Day (2/27/09)

One of [Wilhelm] Dilthey's main achievements was that he called attention to the fact that all life is intrinsically hermeneutic. It always has an interpretation of itself at hand. This is not an extrinsic and secondary trait but a very property of life, and this reflectivity that accompanies life seemed to Dilthey even richer and wiser than the abstractions of conceptual thought. As every man, consciously or subconsciously, has a Weltanschauung, or world view, he also has, prior to all philosophy, a view of man. Every cultural product, even the earliest religion and art, contains an image of man.
--Michael Landmann, Philosophical Anthropology