| Abstract: | Michael Schmid’s criticism of Max Weber’s methodology is both the background and touchstone for a rational reconstruction of Webers doctrine of the idealtypes. In my view, idealtypes are non-falsifiable, idealised theoretical models of a non-statement type of view. This recent approach in the philosophy of science distinguishes between theoretical models on the one hand and theoretical hypotheses on the other. I argue that only the application of these models attains the character of hypotheses. In Weber we find a three step conception of explanation, which encompasses social rules and idealtypes on both the micro and the macro level. The ultimate aim of Weber’s sociology is a macro-socially induced formulation of social species (Arten). They allow a categorisation of the social rules, which are explained through types of action and by means of idealtypes on the macro-level, which serve the function of a theoretical unification. For Weber, macrophenomena allow for a species-realistic interpretation. This realism of social species states an ontological order of empirical reality. Objective truth then means the correct registration of the taxonomical order of social reality and the classification of historical phenomena in this taxonomical order. Weber is an ontological individualist, but, contrary to dominant opinion, a methodological holist. |
