Heinrich Rickert

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Heinrich John Rickert (1863–1936) was a German philosopher and a leading figure of the Baden school of neo-Kantianism. He was born in Danzig, Prussia (now Gdańsk, Poland) and died in Heidelberg. He studied at the University of Berlin and the University of Strasbourg, earning a PhD in 1888 on the theory of definition under Wilhelm Windelband. Rickert taught at the University of Freiburg (1894–1915) and Heidelberg (1915–1932). He is known for the idea that historical facts and scientific facts are qualitatively different, and for distinguishing between knowing (kennen) and cognizing (erkennen). He argued that values require distance from life, opposing the view that “vital values” are true values. His work influenced Max Weber, and Martin Heidegger began his career as Rickert’s assistant. Rickert and Windelband founded the Baden school of neo-Kantianism and promoted a Kantian, transcendental method to unify knowledge across science and history, though with different methods than Dilthey’s hermeneutics. Rickert also mentored students such as Bruno Bauch, Rudolf Carnap, and Emil Lask, with Heidegger among his notable later students.