Heinrich Rickert
Born	Heinrich John Rickert (1863-05-25)25 May 1863 Danzig, Prussia
Died	25 July 1936(1936-07-25) (aged 73) Heidelberg, Nazi Germany
Father	H. E. Rickert
Education
Education	University of Berlin University of Strasbourg (PhD, 1888) University of Freiburg (Dr. phil. hab., 1891)
Thesis	Zur Lehre von der Definition (On the Theory of Definition) (1888)
Doctoral advisor	Wilhelm Windelband (PhD advisor) Alois Riehl (Dr. phil. hab. advisor)
Other advisor	Friedrich Paulsen
Philosophical work
Era	19th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Neo-Kantianism (Baden school)
Institutions	University of Freiburg (1894–1915) University of Heidelberg (1915–1932)
Doctoral students	Bruno Bauch Martin Heidegger Richard Kroner
Notable students	Walter Benjamin Rudolf Carnap Emil Lask
Main interests	Epistemology, metaphysics
Notable ideas	Qualitative distinction between historical and scientific facts Distinction between knowing (kennen) and cognizing (erkennen)[1]

Heinrich John Rickert (; German: [ˈʁɪkɐt]; 25 May 1863 – 25 July 1936) was a German philosopher, a leading neo-Kantian of the Baden school.

Rickert was born in Danzig, Prussia (now Gdańsk, Poland) to the journalist and later politician Heinrich Edwin Rickert and Annette née Stoddart. He was professor of philosophy at the University of Freiburg (1894–1915, succeeded by Edmund Husserl) and the University of Heidelberg (1915–1932, succeeding Wilhelm Windelband). He died in Heidelberg amid Nazi Germany.

Despite his earlier support for Jewish philosophers, Rickert later embraced National Socialism.^[2]

Rickert is known for his discussion of a qualitative distinction between historical and scientific facts.^[3] He also argued (against Wilhelm Dilthey, Georg Simmel, and the anti-rationalist philosophers of life) that only someone who takes a purely theoretical standpoint can reflect on the world as a whole.^[2]

Rickert's philosophy was an important influence on the work of sociologist Max Weber, who borrowed much of his methodology, including the concept of the ideal type. Philosopher Martin Heidegger began his academic career as Rickert's assistant, graduating and writing his habilitation thesis under Rickert.^[4]

Charles R. Bambach writes:

In his work Rickert, like Dilthey, intended to offer a unifying theory of knowledge which, although accepting a division between science and history or Natur and Geist, overcame this division in a new philosophical method. For Dilthey the method was wedded to hermeneutics; for Rickert it was the transcendental method of Kant.^[5]

In addition, Rickert's Die Grenzen der naturwissenschaftlichen Begriffsbildung was cited by the Kantian scholar Lewis White Beck as a major source of inspiration during his early studies as an undergraduate with Leroy Loemker.^[6]

Rickert and Windelband led the Baden school of neo-Kantians.

• Zur Lehre von der Definition [On the Theory of Definition] (1888) (doctoral thesis). Center for Research libraries, crl.edu 2nd. ed., 1915. 3rd ed., 1929.
• Der Gegenstand der Erkenntnis: ein Beitrag zum Problem der philosophischen Transcendenz (1892). Google (UCal)
  • 2nd ed., 1904: Der Gegenstand der Erkenntnis: Einführung in die Transzendentalphilosophie. Google (UMich)
• Die Grenzen der naturwissenschaftlichen Begriffsbildung. Vol. I. Freiburg i. B. und Leipzig: J. C. B. Mohr. 896–1902 – via Internet Archive. Google (NYPL) 2nd ed., 1913.
  • (in English) The Limits of Concept Formation in Natural Science (1986). (Tr. Guy Oakes.) ISBN 0-521-25139-7
• Fichtes Atheismusstreit und die kantische Philosophie (1899). Google (UCal) IA (UToronto)
• Kulturwissenschaft und Naturwissenschaft (1899). 6th/7th revised and expanded ed., 1926.
  • (in English) Science and history: A critique of positivist epistemology. Translated by George Reisman. Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand Company. 1962 – via Internet Archive.
• "Geschichtsphilosophie" in Die Philosophie im Beginn des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts (1905). 2 volumes. Vol. 2, pp. 51–135
• Die Probleme der Geschichtsphilosophie: eine Einführung, 3rd ed., 1924. New ed.: Celtis Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-944253-01-5
• Wilhelm Windelband (1915).
• Die Philosophie des Lebens: Darstellung und Kritik der philosophischen Modeströmungen unserer Zeit (1920). IA (UToronto) 2nd ed., 1922.
• Allgemeine Grundlegung der Philosophie (1921). [System der Philosophie vol. 1]
• Kant als Philosoph der modernen Kultur (1924).
• Über die Welt der Erfahrung (1927).
• Die Logik des Prädikats und das Problem der Ontologie (1930).
• Die Heidelberger Tradition in der Deutschen Philosophie (1931).
• Goethes Faust (1932).
• Grundprobleme der Philosophie: Methodologie, Ontologie, Anthropologie (1934). ISBN 3-86550-985-1
• Unmittelbarkeit und Sinndeutung (1939).

• Rainer A. Bast (2003). "Rickert, Heinrich". Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol. 21. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 550–552.

• Christian Krijnen. Nachmetaphysischer Sinn. Eine problemgeschichtliche und systematische Studie zu den Prinzipien der Wertphilosophie Heinrich Rickerts. Würzburg 2001. ISBN 3-8260-2020-0.
• Dewalque, Arnaud. Être et jugement. La fondation de l’ontologie chez Heinrich Rickert, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, coll. « Europaea Memoria », 2010. ISBN 9783487143040.
• Kupriyanov V. "Teleology as a method of historical cognition in H. Rickert's philosophy," SGEM2015 Conference Proceedings, 2015 (Vol. 1, Book 3, pp. 697–702).
• Mayeda, Graham. 2008. "Is there a Method to Chance? Contrasting Kuki Shūzō’s Phenomenological Methodology in The Problem of Contingency with that of his Contemporaries Wilhelm Windelband and Heinrich Rickert." In Victor S. Hori and Melissa Anne-Marie Curley (eds.), Frontiers of Japanese Philosophy II: Neglected Themes and Hidden Variations (Nagoya, Japan: Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture).
• Zijderveld, Anton C. Rickert's Relevance. The Ontological Nature and Epistemological Functions of Values. Leiden, Brill 2006. ISBN 978-90-04-15173-4.

• Works by or about Heinrich Rickert at the Internet Archive
• Nachlaß Heinrich Rickert: Übersicht
• Nachlaß Heinrich Rickert: Inhaltzverzeichnis