Weber reconciled hermeneutics and positivism through ideal-type heuristic models

Evidence

Weber thus settled, methodologically at least, for a compromise position. The building up of heuristic models—ideal types—each of which accentuated a different aspect of a phenomenon (a position which foreshadows Mannheim’s relationism ), was one way of ensuring a more comprehensive, and at the same time more carefully prescribed, view of the phenomenon than a simple empathizing with it could offer. So far as explanation was concerned, Weber argued that cultural objects and historical events required both hermeneutic (interpretive) and causal-historical understanding. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 334

Categorization

• DEFINE: Concise account of what the ideal type is and the methodenstreit compromise it embodies.
• XREF: Weber’s ‘adequate at the level of meaning’ criterion connects to hermeneutic theory (Gadamer, Ricoeur) and to contemporary debates in interpretive social science. — connects to: Husserl’s Lebenswelt analysis parallels Weber and Thomas’s sociology — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 1414; The Dialectic of Enlightenment rests on two uncredited themes from Weber and Klages — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1368; Eucken reconciled German historical and theoretical economics through ideal-type abstractions — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 532