Under the label »Problemgeschichte« (history of problems), the representatives of both the South-West and Marburg Schools of German neo-Kantianism advanced the search for structures in the socio-cultural world that transcend the bounds of time in order to settle the debate over historicism and relativism. Problems are intellectual questions to which we cannot find answers, but which prompt us, time and again, to consider them anew. Around 1900, a broad consensus emerged about the existence of such basic or primary problems of thought, for example the mind-matter problem or the antinomy of freedom and necessity in human action. Among the epistemological and anthropological explanations, as well as those in the theory of values and the philosophy of life, Nicolai Hartmann’s approach to the history of problems and his conception of intellectual altruism stand out. So far, they have received little attention in research concerning the historiography of philosophy. Taking into account the criticism that Hans-Georg Gadamer has raised against »Problemgeschichte, « this article provides a sympathetic reconstruction of Hartmann’s position.
