Due to his descriptive-analytical psychology – in combination with his writings on the theory of science and the history of thought – Wilhelm Dilthey is to be regarded as a forerunner of modern scientific phenomenology. Since he also developed the terms lived 'experience' (Erlebnis) and ›mood‹ (Stimmung) categorically in his literary-historical studies, a return to his work is indispensable for the fundamental philosophical reflection of our present. Individual as well as collective experience is the anthropologically common factor of a theory and practice of understanding as conceptualized by Dilthey in the perspective of historical reason. The historicity of individuality corresponds to the infinity of cultural variation and both correspond to the differentiation of moods.