Max Weber and the Methodology of the Social Sciences

Huff provides a rare, full-scale study of the origins and development of Max Weber's methodology which focusses on Weber's neglected early methodological essays that only recently have been translated into English. He explores Weber's writings in light of recent developments in "post-empiricist" philosophy of science, and shows that Weber was well aware of the epistemological foundations of the "descriptive psychology" school, whose intellectual heir was Husserl. It will help scholars and students understand in the broadest sense the issues central to the logic of social scientific explanation, and will appeal to philosophers, sociologists, political scientists as well as scholars of Weber.