The Problem of Historical School and Historismus (Historicism) as Genealogy of Max Weber’ Thought : Value and Status of His Thought in Relation to Philosophy and History (2022.12)
- Author : Chiwon Choi
- Publisher : Zeitschrift der Koreanisch-Deutschen Gesellschaft fuer Sozialwissenschaften
- Publication : Koreanisch-Deutsche Gesellschaft Fuer Sozialwissenschaften(K-G Association For Social Sciences)
- Volume : 32(4)
- Date : December 2022
Abstract: The link of romanticism, the historical school and historicism (Historismus) is neither ‘reason’ (freedom) nor progress advocated by the Enlightenment and inherited by Hegel, but ‘history’ (understood as life) that cannot be systematized within philosophical concepts. Weber calls himself as a ‘son of historical school’. As confirmed in many parts of the fountain of his thought, his negative attitude towards the Enlightenment and Hegel’s philosophy tells us that his thought is essentially characterized by the rejection of philosophy and the primacy of history, which historicism (Historismus) and historical school justify. Two moments are thus inherent in his thought: resistance of history to philosophy on the one hand and philosophy subsumed by history on the other hand. Thus, historicism (Historismus) and the branches of the historical school in a special sense, that is, historicist jurisprudence, historicist economics, and historicist historiography, are the source and nourishment of Weber’s thought. In this way, Weber, as a ‘son of the historical school’, stands in the tradition of Herder, Savigny, Ranke, Droysen, Dilthey, Schmoller, Windelband, Rickert etc. He fights, however, against it on the other hand, eliminating the irrationality romanticism. Through this, he forms his identity and ‘unique personality’ as a rationalistic scholar. At the same time, Weber forms his identity and ‘unique personality’ as an active politician and political thinker, following the tradition of the historical school and historicism (Historismus) in that he grasps history as a question of politics: He tries to fulfill the demands of politics of the time which are different from the conservatism that dominated this tradition. Unlike scholar-Weber, however, politician-Weber cannot completely disconnect from the irrational momentum of romanticism inherent in the tradition of the historical school and historicism (Historismus).