Paul Yorck von Wartenburg

German philosopher and count (1835–1897), known chiefly through his correspondence with Dilthey and his fragmentary posthumous papers. In Gadamer's Ch 3 he is the surprise hero — "the missing link between Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind and Husserl's Phenomenology."

Key Points

  • The correlation of life and self-consciousness. Yorck makes the structural correlation between life and self-consciousness a methodological principle: life as "primordial division" (Urteilung) that asserts itself as unity in articulation; philosophy must "repeat the experiment of life in reverse."
  • Superior to both Dilthey and Husserl. Where Dilthey "derived the objectivity of science too easily from life comportment" and Husserl "entirely lacked any more exact definition of what life is," Yorck holds together speculative idealism and the new experimental ("Darwinian") standpoint.
  • The "generic difference between the ontic and the historical." This formula lets Gadamer gloss Heidegger's knower/known relation as belonging (Zugehörigkeit), not homogeneity — routing the whole genealogy into a theory of tradition. See effective-history.

Connections

  • is the "missing link" between Hegel's and Husserl's phenomenology.
  • supplies the "ontic/historical" distinction Gadamer uses to read Heidegger's belonging (vs. Dilthey's homogeneity).
  • corrects Dilthey on the concept of life.

Sources