Wilhelm Dilthey
Makkreel's work is concentrated on hermeneutics and aesthetics by developing ideas from the German philosophers Wilhelm Dilthey and Immanuel Kant. Makkreel has focused on the roles of the imagination, judgment, and interpretation within Kant's critical system. The implications of Kant's conception of reflective judgment for hermeneutics and for the theory of the human sciences are also central to Makkreel's writings.