Max Weber e a investigação histórico-empírica
| Autor | Edith Hanke |
| Páginas | 118-141 |
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5007/175-7984.2020v19n45p118
118118 – 141
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Max Weber and the
Empirical Historical Inquiry
Edith Hanke
Abstract
Max Weber is a worldwide respected sociologist, but there are other ways to approach and
appreciate his oeuvre, especially in historical science. He has been seen as the last German-
speaking polyhistor, as the founding father of historical cultural studies, and even as the
forerunner of a problem-focused historiography. At the same time, history provides him
with an almost inexhaustible reservoir of single data. Weber demonstrates what about data
is scientically interesting and how to make use of it for dealing with scientic questions.
My approach in this essay will be as follows: Firstly, I will identify Weber’s methodological
reections about how to deal with empirical-historical reality. Secondly, I will show how Weber
embraces history with special focus on his sociology of domination – a centerpiece of Economy
and Society. Finally, I will shortly explore the possibilities of adapting Weber’s main theses to
present-day historical sciences.
Keywords: Max Weber. Empirical historical knowledge. Science of reality. Sociology of domination.
The question about empirical historical knowledge is
at the same time a question about the relation between
sociology and history
Max Weber1 was not a professional historian (HANKE, 2015). If
one makes too narrow disciplinary boundaries the sole criterion for
consideration, everything would be said with this sentence. Weber is a
worldwide respected sociologist, but there are other ways to approach and
appreciate his oeuvre, especially in historical science. Some see Weber as the
1 This contribution was presented as a lecture at the “First International Meeting of the Young Weber Scholars –
Max-Weber-Network” in Hamburg, 29th November till 1st December 2017. It is a short version of the German
publication: Max Weber und die historische Empirie (HANKE, 2015). Thanks to Sérgio da Mata and Arthur
Alfaix Assis for the critical review of the text for the publication in Brazil.
Política & Sociedade - Florianópolis - Vol. 19 - Nº 45 - Mai./Ago. de 2020
119118 – 141
last German-speaking polyhistor (MOMMSEN, 1986).2 To a generation
of West-German historians he was the forerunner of social history and
of a theory-driven historical science (KROLL, 2010).3 roughout the
Humanities, interdisciplinary-leaning scholars refer to him as the founding
father of historical cultural studies (BRUCH; GRAF; HÜBINGER, 1989;
HÜBINGER, [1889], 1997).4 Furthermore, for a group of historians
aligned with French historiographical debates, Weber opened new research
perspectives by providing a key to a problem-focused history (OXELE,
2011).5
Max Weber reveals an immense historical knowledge in his oeuvre,
which can now be read in a complete historical-critical edition in 47
volumes, the Max-Weber-Gesamtausgabe (WEBER, [1984] 2020).6 Weber
condently surveys multiple periods and cultures, ranging from the music
of the Weddah in Ceylon and the ancient Egyptian privileges of immunity,
all the way to the treatises of the Quaker Robert Barclay. Experts and
professional historians have accused Weber’s research of dilettantism.
Such criticism was already levelled during Weber’s lifetime, and has been
around ever since. It is usually related to the old and tiring dispute over
disciplinary boundaries and hierarchies – whether a sociologist should
be allowed to go poaching in the historians’ territories, or the other way
around, whether the historical science can be pushed aside into the role of
sociology’s maidservant.
Historical research provides the empirical material with which Max
Weber operates. But sometimes Weber himself was engaged in inquiries
about prevailing questions – “Enqueten” in the vocabulary of those days
2 On Max Weber‘s universal-historical approach, cf. Wolfgang J. Mommsen (1986, p. 51-72) in Max Webers
Begriff der Universalgeschichte.
3 On the so called Bielefeld School and the “Theory of History“ research group, cf. Thomas Kroll (2010, p. 189-
205) in Die Max-Weber-Rezeption in der westdeutschen Historiographi.
4 Cf. Kultur und Kulturwissenschaften um 1900. Krise der Moderne und Glaube an die Wissenschaft (BRUCH;
GRAF; HÜBINGER, [1889], 1997) and especially Max Weber und die historischen Kulturwissenschaften (HÜ-
BINGER, 1988).
5 On the project of the former Max Planck Institute for History in Göttingen: Das Problem der Problemgeschichte
(OXELE, 2011).
6 Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe (MWG), 47vols. (WEBER, [1984] 2020). The critical edition presents Weber’s
work in three sections: Writings and Speeches (I), Letters (II), Lectures and Lecture Notes (III).
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