Max Weber

Max Weber thought that "statements of fact are one thing, statements of value another, and any confusing of the two is impermissible," Ralf Dahrendorf writes in his essay "Max Weber and Modern Social Science" as he acknowledges that Weber clarified the difference between pronouncements of fact and of value. 1 Although Dahrendorf goes on to note the ambiguities in Weber's writings between factual analysis and value-influenced pronouncements, he stops short of offering an explanation for them …

…the analyst can evaluate social facts completely independent of own values. Weber sums up this position in "The Nation State and Economic Policy": "We in particular succumb readily to a special kind of illusion, namely that we are able to refrain entirely from making conscious value judgements of our own." 32 In other words, when the analyst fails to clarify and consciously acknowledge his values, it is unlikely that he can conduct the subsequent analysis impartially.