Science, Values, and the Empirical Argument in Max Weber's Inaugural Address

Abstract

Max Weber’s inaugural address in Freiburg, ‘The Nation State and Economic Policy’, is as important as it is contested. It has been used as a key to an understanding of both Weber's political and methodological thought. The minutiae of the empirical part of the lecture, however, has received less attention. This article provides a detailed reconstruction of the largely implicit explanatory scheme in the inaugural address. It sets out to show how Weber's analysis of a social transformation in rural West Prussia—from a patriarchal to a capitalist employment regime—relates to the specific explanandum of the study. The reconstructed explanatory scheme is then used to interpret Weber’s views of the relations between science, values and politics.