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Historical Perspectives on Erklären and Verstehen pp 241–265Cite as

From Mill via von Kries to Max Weber: Causality, Explanation, and Understanding

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Part of the book series: Archimedes ((ARIM,volume 21))

Abstract

In the second part of his “Critical studies in the logic of the cultural sciences” published in 1906, which carries the title “Objective possibility and adequate causation in historical explanation” (Weber 1906, 164-188/266-290)1 Max Weber (1864-1920) wrote that he feels “almost embarrassed in view of the extent to which here again, as in so much of the preceding argument, I am ‘plundering’ von Kries’ ideas” (Weber 1906, 186/288).2 Weber thus admits a very strong influence on his approach by the physiologist, philosopher, and theoretician of probability, von Kries (1853-1928), who was for sometime his colleague in Freiburg in southwest Germany. Von Kries had suggested a legal criterion for attributing a deed to an agent that exerted a strong influence on German civil law and was also taken up by the legal system of other countries. This earned him the title of an honorary doctor of the law faculty of the University of Erlangen in 1897.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The numbers after the slash refer to the pages of the German original.

  2. 2.

    The translators have obviously misunderstood the German original here: “Der Umfang, in welchem hier wieder, wie schon in vielen vorstehenden Ausführungen v. Kries’ Gedanken ‘geplündert’ werden, ist mir fast genant.” The last word is taken from French as it was used colloquially among educated Germans at the time: “gênant”, meaning “embarrassing!” Shils and Finch translate: “I scarcely mention the extent to which here again…,” thus belittling Weber’s debt to von Kries!

  3. 3.

    Quotes in English not taken from published translations and not indicated by a double reference to page(s) are by Michael Heidelberger.

  4. 4.

    Compare also “If we do not, when aiming at accuracy, enumerate all the conditions, it is only because some of them will in most cases be understood without being expressed, or because for the purpose in view they may without detriment be overlooked. For example, when we say, the cause of a man’s death was that his foot slipped in climbing a ladder, we omit as a thing unnecessary to be stated the circumstance of his weight, though quite as indispensable a condition of the effect which took place” (Mill 1843, III, v. 3).

  5. 5.

    Sometimes the philosophers Johann Friedrich Herbart and Hermann Lotze, but also Thomas Hobbes, are regarded as independent forerunners of Mill..

  6. 6.

    Weber also realized this: “Von Kries himself has shown the contrast between his theory and John Stuart Mill’s […] in a way which is entirely convincing to me” (Weber 1906, 168/270).

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  1. Philosophisches Seminar, Universität Tübingen, Bursagasse 1, 72070, Tübingen, Germany

    Michael Heidelberger

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  1. Michael Heidelberger
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  1. Inst. Philosophie, Wissenschaftstheorie,, TU Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, Berlin, 10623, Germany

    Uljana Feest

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Heidelberger, M. (2010). From Mill via von Kries to Max Weber: Causality, Explanation, and Understanding. In: Feest, U. (eds) Historical Perspectives on Erklären and Verstehen. Archimedes, vol 21. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3540-0_13

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