Weber's methodological writings form the bedrock of key ideas across the social sciences. His discussion of value freedom and value commitment, causality, understanding and explanation, theory building and ideal types have been of fundamental importance, and their impact remains undiminished today. These ideas influence the current research practice of sociologists, historians, economists and political scientists and are central to debates in the philosophy of social science. But, until now, Weber's extensive writings on methodology have lacked a comprehensive publication. Edited by two of the world's leading Weber scholars, Collected Methodological Writings will provide a completely new, accurate and reliable translation of Weber's extensive output, including previously untranslated letters. Accompanying editorial commentary explains the context of, and interconnections between, all these writings, and additional useful features include a glossary of German terms and an English key, endnotes, bibliography, and person and subject indexes.
Max Weber Bibliography. Introduction. Editorial Preface. Articles: Roscher and Knies and the Logical Problems of Historical Economics 1. Roscher's 'Historical Method' 2. Knies and the Problem of Irrationality 3. Knies and the Problem of Irrationality. Accompanying Remarks. The 'Objectivity' of Knowledge in Social Science and Social Policy. Critical Studies in the Logic of the Cultural Sciences 1. A Critique of Eduard Meyer 2. Objective Possibility and Adequate Causation in the Historical Causal Approach. R[udolf] Stammler's 'Overcoming' of the Materialist Conception of History. Addendum to the Essay on R[udolf] Stammler's 'Overcoming' of the Materialist Conception of History. The Theory of Marginal Utility and the 'Fundamental Law of Psycho-physics'. 'Energetical' Theories of Culture. Review of Adolf Weber, The Tasks of Economic Theory as a Science, 1909 (excerpts). On some Categories of Interpretive Sociology. Declaration. The Meaning of 'Value Freedom' in the Sociological and Economic Sciences. Science as a Profession and Vocation. Contributions and Interventions (excerpts): Association for Social Policy, Mannheim 1905 - Intervention in debate on G. Schmoller's lecture on 'The relationship of cartels to state'. Association for Social Policy, Vienna 1909 - Intervention in discussion on 'The productivity of the national economy'. German Sociological Society, General Meeting, Frankfurt 1910 - Business Report. Intervention in debate on W. Sombart's paper on 'Technology and culture'. Intervention in debate on H. Kantorowicz's paper on 'Legal science and sociology'. Letters (excerpts). Notes and Drafts: 1. Note marked 'Rickert's "values"' (The 'Nervi Fragment'), c. 1902/1903. 2. Note marked 'New sciences', c. 1902/1903. 3. Note on 'immediate experience' and 'human action', c. 1902/1903 4. Note on Wilhelm Roscher, c. 1902/1903. 5. Note on historical method, c. 1902/1903. 6. Note on 'intelligibility' of reality, c. 1902/1902. 7. Note on 'cosmos' and 'development', c. 1902/1903. 8. Note marked 'Development v. Below/E. Meyer', c. 1902/1903. 9. Handwritten beginning of draft entitled 'Georg Simmel as a Sociologist and Theoretician of the Money Economy', c. 1908. 10. 'Fragment on Formal Ethics', c. 1912. English Key to Glossary. Glossary. Index of Persons.
