The Categorical Imperative in Max Weber’s Thought

Abstract

The habit of perception of Max Weber as a sociologist, historian of culture, politician, more rarely as an economist but almost never as an ethicist obscures the fact that along with the ideas of descriptive ethics we can meet in his works also the ideas of normative ethics. An investigation of his heritage only in one side leads incorrectly to consideration his view on morality only through the lenses of its historical and sociological conditionality in the context of «ethical neutrality». However, it is only one side of Weber’s works because the German thinker has also ideas concerning justification of normative rules, and «ethical neutrality» is only one of them. There are also other obligations and all of them can be examined from the point of view of normative ethics. There is every reason to believe that the normative moment in Weber’s works determines the descriptive, sociological-descriptive one and not vice versa. In this article not a question of methodology is raised up but a question of ethics. In this regard it is important to consider Weber’s ideas about the categorical imperative as the expression of normativity. It is demonstrated that Weber not only had a lot of thoughts about this subject but we could try to reconstruct his version of the categorical imperative.