neo-Kantian

1. an objective (or intersubjective) phenomenal realm (natural science); and
2. the social realm, a realm of human ACTION and values. During the METHODENSTREIT of the 1890s, RICKERT and Windelband were particularly influential in reintroducing the idea that mind and mental CATEGORIES shape our perceptions of the world, and in stressing a distinction between the ‘historical’ and cultural sciences, concerned with unique configurations, and the ‘natural’ sciences, and insisted that the former required a method that recognized the specificity and value-related nature of their subject matter. They suggested that any attempt to analyse and describe the social world is thus bound to simplify either by imposing general categories or in interpreting reality in relation to its relevance for values. This way of thinking influenced both SIMMEL and WEBER. see also IDIOGRAPHIC AND NOMOTHETIC.