Abstract
As everybody knows, Max Weber had a certain conception : he had regarded his cognitive standpoint as a sort of interpretive science. His “verstehende” historical sociology comes into existence upon the intersecting point of “Erkenntnis” and “Person”.
There are two difficulties corresponding to these two perspectives of his theory. Ono problem is the equivocation of concept of “Verstehen”, which originates in his introducing the other concept of understanding, not only but so-called “understanding of motives”. The other problem is the confrontation of two kinds of view on “Person” in Weber : one is the view which regards “Person” as “dezisionistisch”, the other the view opposing it. Weber's historical sociology will never operate well, unless these two problems are solved.
By investigating the first problem, the structure of his “Verstecen” will be clarified. The solution of the second problem brings us the apparatus by which “Verstehende” cognition will overcome the contradiction of the concept of “Person”.
The consideration from these two angles throws light on the key concept of his “Verstehende Soziologie”, where the two perspectives of “Verstehende” cognition and “Person” cross each other : it makes clear the pivotal significance of “Hermeneutisches Verstehen” which he brought into his methodology-the mediating process between subject and object in “Wertbeziecung”.
