Specify the Meta Theoretical Assumptions Informing the Work of Max Weber, Illustrating Your Answer by Reference to His Substantive Concepts

Like his French counterpart, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber (1864-1920) was interested in scholarly disputes about method and theory in sociology, as he writes in The Methodology of Social Science: "Only by identifying and solving objective problems were sciences established and their method further developed; never, on the other hand, have epistemological or methodological considerations been decisively involved" (Weber, 1904, p145). Weber was influenced by the German sociologist Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911), who articulated the distinction between natural science and social science.…