disciplinary role Weber hoped it would .
Otherwise, the ideal types will select out
those aspects of reality which their social scientist creators have established, priori
а
, as
essential to the phenomenon under investigation. The signals or data so selected out
will then confirm and fuse with the ideal type which selected them out in the first place.
IV.
THE COMPOSITION OF REALITY-IN-ITSELF AND OF REALITY-FOR US
Whatever may distinguish science from other forms of knowledge, modern
science and philosophies that have taken their bearings from it continue a much older
tradition of seeking the truth about reality. Galileo, the founder of the modern scientific
tradition, for example, was not content to teach merely that the Copernican System of
the World was a convenient instrument for making astronomical calculations and
predictions. This would not have offended the Church. Yet Galileo believed it to be a
true description of the world'.
The rigorous necessity in nature he saw as resulting
from its underlying mathematical structure. The conclusions of the natural sciences he
took to be absolutely true and necessary since he saw them as describing the
30
As Talcott Parsons put it, Weber covers over the
theoretical deficiencies in his methodology with a certain ad
hocness "by his enormous historical erudition and excellent
level of empirical insight and judgment." He goes on to
suggest, however, that "in the hands of a scholar of lesser
genius than Weber, it would be very difficult to get comparable
results through the use of his scheme," and that this may be one
of the reasons for the relatively small cumulative outcome of
Weber's work (Parsons, 1963: lxv-lxvi).
31
Popper, Conjectures and Refutations, p.98.
Convention