 The final phase of Dilthey’s philosophy can be said to begin at the turn of the twentieth century with his essay “The Rise of Hermeneutics”. Whereas the early prize-essay on Schleiermacher’s hermeneutics had been more focused on textual and theological interpretation, the new essay makes hermeneutics a connecting link between philosophy and history. Dilthey argues that the study of history can be reliable only if it is possible to raise the understanding of what is singular to the level of universal validity. Here he also comes to the realization that 