Science and worldview: Max Weber, Alois Riehl and the cultural sciences

This text focuses on Alois Riehl (1844–1924), a contemporary of Max Weber who has previously been overlooked in Weber scholarship. The aim of this article is to explain Riehl’s concept of value-free science and compare it with Weber’s 1917 lecture ‘Science as a Vocation’. The neo-Kantian Riehl made this topic the focus of his reflections in several works. Weber and Riehl were close friends in Freiburg, where Weber’s interest in epistemological questions was awakened. Riehl was professor of philosophy in Freiburg from 1882 to 1896. Heinrich Rickert (1863–1936) was his scholar and later successor. While the potential influence of Rickert on Weber has been extensively studied, that of Riehl has hardly been examined. Nevertheless, the potential influence that Riehl may have had on Weber is also worth considering.