ABSTRACT
Scientific behavior is a combination of rational action in relation to a goal and rational action in relation to a value. The value is truth, the rationality is that of the rules of logic and research, a respect for which is indispensable to the validity of the results obtained. In Max Weber's eyes, incompleteness is a fundamental characteristic of modern science. The Weberian idea of comprehension is largely borrowed from Karl Jaspers, at a time when Jaspers was a psychologist or a psychopathologist. In Weber's thought it by no means implies the existence of some mysterious faculty, an intuition exterior or superior to reason or to the logical procedures of the natural sciences. The originality of the sciences of history and culture can be reduced to these three propositions: these sciences are comprehending; they are historical; and they have to do with culture.
