Ideal Types as Hermeneutic Concepts.

My paper sets out to demonstrate that Weber's ideal-typical theory of concept formation, subject to certain modifications, is compatible with the principles of philosophical hermeneutics and is therefore a valuable strategy of concept formation for interpretive historical inquiry. The essay begins w...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Philosophy of History Vol. 1; no. 3; pp. 318 - 346
Main Author: Kedar, Asaf
Format: Article
Published: Brill Academic Publishers Sep2007
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=32579251&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: hlh
    uiTerm: 32579251
    longDbName: Humanities International Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        1872261X
        2SGR
      jtl: Journal of the Philosophy of History
      issn: 1872261X
      maglogo: Y
    pubinfo:
      dt: Sep2007
      vid: 1
      iid: 3
      pid: 639
      pub: Brill Academic Publishers
    artinfo:
      ui:
        32579251
        10.1163/187226307X229380
      ppf: 318
      ppct: 28
      formats:
        fmt:
          @attributes:
            type: P
            size: 189KB
      tig:
        atl: Ideal Types as Hermeneutic Concepts.
      aug:
        au: Kedar, Asaf
        affil: Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, USA
      su:
        Philosophy of sociology
        Ideal type (Sociology)
        Hermeneutics
        Weber, Max, 1864-1920
        Concepts
      sug:
        subj:
          Philosophy of sociology
          Ideal type (Sociology)
          Hermeneutics
          Weber, Max, 1864-1920
          Concepts
      keyword:
        CONCEPT FORMATION
        HERMENEUTICS
        IDEAL TYPE
        MAX WEBER
      ab: My paper sets out to demonstrate that Weber's ideal-typical theory of concept formation, subject to certain modifications, is compatible with the principles of philosophical hermeneutics and is therefore a valuable strategy of concept formation for interpretive historical inquiry. The essay begins with a brief recapitulation of the philosophical-hermeneutic approach to the human sciences. I then chart out the affinities as well as the discrepancies between philosophical hermeneutics and Weber's theory of the ideal type. Against this backdrop, I proceed to offer a number of correctives and additions to Weber's theory so as to tighten its fit with philosophical hermeneutics. First, I argue that the ideal type's proper logic of concept formation is a logic of significance rather than a logic of commonality. Second, I claim that the relationship between the various empirical cases to which a given ideal type is (or can be) applied is a Wittgensteinian relationship of family resemblance. Finally, I present two main kinds of epistemological functions that ideal types can fulfill within the framework of historical inquiry: argumentative and orientational-clarificatory.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: Y
      custom: Copyright of Journal of the Philosophy of History is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
      item: Journal of the Philosophy of History
      holder: Brill Academic Publishers
      dt:
        @attributes:
          year: 2007
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N