The recent publication of the entirety of Max Weber’s methodological writings in an English translation by Bruun and Whimster offers an opportunity to reassess the question how far he himself consistently adhered to his own precepts about Wertfreiheit and the construction and deployment of ideal types. It is argued that Weber himself saw the problem not as a logical but as a purely psychological one, and that he could therefore justify the apparent contradictions between his precepts and his practice as either deliberate exercises in something other than Wissenschaft or, in his wissenschaftlich writings, as lapses capable in principle of correction. In conclusion, it is briefly suggested that Weber would regard the major advances made in the human behavioural sciences since his lifetime as generally consistent with his own methodology.
