The foundations of weberian social science and Leo Strauss's critical interpretation

Abstract

The present work aims to analyze the postulates that support the ethically neutral social science proposed by Max Weber, through Leo Strauss’s critical perspective. In the first session we tried to present the methodological and epistemological arguments of the German social scientist, such as the objectivity of knowledge, the “axiological neutrality”, the distinction between facts and values and the denial that, anchored in reason and science, we can make judgments objectives on the ultimate values. In the following section, we present the critical interpretation that political philosopher Leo Strauss makes about the foundations of Weberian social science and the supposed relativism and nihilism underlying it. In the final remarks, we raise the reflection upon the possibility, presented by Strauss and defended by Nasser Behnegar, of founding a social science that goes beyond self-imposed limits without becoming dogmatic or submitting to religious thought.