Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/44402

In 1888 Johannes von Kries (1853-1928), a physiologist and neo-Kantian logician, published the well-known treatise "Über den Begriff der objektiven Möglichkeit und einige Anwendungen desselben" ("On the Concept of Objective Possibility and Some of its Applications"), which caused intense discussions of methodology among young social scientists: M. Weber (1964-1920), an Ukrainian jurist B. Kistiakovsky (1868-1920), a Russian statistician A. Chuprov (1874-1926), a Polish statistician L. Bortkiewicz (1868-1931) and a German jurist G. Radbruch (1878-1949). As M. Weber wrote in his work "Kritische Studien auf dem Gebiet der kulturwissenschaftlichen Logik" ("Critical Studies in the Field of Logics of Cultural Sciences"), specially in its footnotes, he had carefully read the papers of the above-mentioned scholars on von Kries. It seems that Weber, as well as his younger friends, was expecting that von Kries's original concepts ('objective possibility,' 'nomological knowledge,' 'adequate causation,' etc.) could be firm bases they were eagerly searching for new social or cultural sciences. J. von Kries's important and difficult work will provide knowledge of the indispensable context in which M. Weber and his contemporaries had made up their own methodologies.