Book Reviews: Political Theory

scholars must inductively infer Weber's position from the historical record, personal accounts, and scholarly writings. Here, Hennis does have some problems. His conclusions are overstated, often with such certainty that the unsuspecting reader might well wonder how generations of scholars could be so incompetent to have missed the obvious. However, inductive inference will always have its inaccuracies. In the light of the necessity for such inductive methods, is a Weber orthodoxy ever likely to develop? The historical record, as well as the wealth of writings, is always open to creative interpretation. Hennis seems to think that the problems will be solved with the completion of Weber's collected works. Then, in reality, the real problems of interpretation are likely to begin. As Weber taught us so well, the infinite complexity of any event can never be reconstructed conceptually. Therefore, the interpretive enterprise is likely to continue undiminished into the future as long as scholars continue to find something of relevance in this German social thinker. Unfortunately, this means that the establishment of anything close to a Weber orthodoxy is likely to remain an elusive goal.