ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the views of Wilhelm Dilthey, Max Weber, and R. G. Collingwood. It shows that these three classical Verstehen theorists placed unacceptable limitations on social science. According to Dilthey, a crucial difference between the natural and the human sciences prevents the reduction of social science methodology to natural science methodology. Some commentators have argued that the conception of Verstehen was Dilthey's most mature conception. The most common and widely accepted interpretation of Dilthey's notion of Verstehen is the reliving sense. Like Dilthey, Weber used the term "Verstehen" in his methodological writings and it has been translated as "understanding". Weber's position on Verstehen was closely connected with his views on the objectivity of sociology. The goal of sociology Weber said is to arrive at subjectively meaningful causal explanations of social behavior. Weber's rational explanatory Verstehen comes closer to Collingwood's view than does Dilthey's but it seems much less extreme in its requirements.
