Believing, evaluating, knowing: legitimacy and logic in Max Weber’s study of law

Abstract

This article presents a discussion on the
relationship between the development of
sociology, legal sciences, logic, ethics and
history in relation to human action and its
interpretation in Max Weber’s neo-Kantian
theory. The methodology adopted is based

on the review of texts by Weber and oth-
er relevant authors in political, legal and

knowledge theory. Key ideas include a

re-reading of the formation of the cogni-
tive processes that gave rise to the different

forms of the legal order in human history,
beyond prescriptive notions that rely on an
absolute and indisputable authority for the

formation of the social order (God, “uni-
versal laws”, the “absolute spirit”). Among

these interpretations is that of Weber, who
attributes prominence to the charismatic

hero as a figure in human history that gen-
erates social cohesion. It is contextualized

that, although there is a similar logic be-
tween this idea and that of National Social-
ism, he cannot be accused of the emergence

and positioning of a project towards which

he expressed political and personal discrep-
ancies. On the contrary, it invites to analyze

the pre-categorical structure in Weber’s
logic, its social and historical environment
and how this logic must be questioned in its
bases and inferences in order to reformulate
a new worldview on social, individual and
juridical development. In conclusion, the
paper highlights the application of criteria
to evaluate the underlying logics of any
theory, including legal theory, by reviewing

the reasoning in each of the fields. It also
suggests differentiating concepts based on
value judgments masked under the aspect

of universal notions, and invites the con-
struction of solid bases, through the anal-
ysis of empirical evidence, to refine, thus,

the instruments used in the analysis of the
cognitive dimension of legal sciences.