Kazuo Okouchi’s Interpretation of Max Weber and Sozialpolitik als Wissenschaft

Abstract

This paper examines Kazuo Okouchi’s interpretation of Max Weber, focusing on the relation between Okouchi and Neo-Kantianism. There are two points to note in this interpretation of Weber.Firstly, Okouchi believed that Weber inherited Neo-Kantianism, which maintained a distinction between being and oughtness. Based on this thought, Okouchi criticized Weber’s concept of Wertfreiheit, which contains the assertion that empirical sciences cannot tell people what they ought to do.Secondly, Okouchi understood that Weber allowed, and in fact called for, people to make value judgments outside of the sciences. Okouchi paid high regard to this aspect of Weber’s thinking.The analysis aims to clarify the relationship between the above-mentioned points and Okouchi-riron （Okouchi’s theory）, and thereby to reinterpret Okouchi, taking his philosophical aspects into consideration.