The Verstehen controversy, which stems from Wilhelm Dilthey, has today become an academic question. But, recently, cognitive sciences and new developments in action theory provided an interesting renewal of the topic. The classical problem of explanation vs. understanding has been reformulated in terms of explanation by causes vs. explanation by reasons. The paper relies on these new issues in order to clarify the original distinction by making explicit its three basic dimensions: ontological, logical and ethical. It also draws some consequences of taking into account the normative facts in sociological analysis.