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Two Developments of the Concept of Anschauliche Theorie (Concrete Theory) in Germany and Japan

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Methodology of the Social Sciences, Ethics, and Economics in the Newer Historical School

Part of the book series: Studies in Economic Ethics and Philosophy ((SEEP))

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Abstract

In the “method debate” (Methodenstreit) at the end of the 19th century, Gustav Schmoller, confronting Carl Menger, argued that there should be no hurrying of theoretical abstraction, but that priority should be given to extensive explanation and analysis of historical facts. But this standpoint of Schmoller, which included an extremely untheoretical tendency, aroused the dissatisfaction of some younger scholars who had grown up under the influence of the “historism” (Historismus). After Schmoller’s death (1917), the concept of “anschauliche Theorie” emerged in the 1920s as an attempt to overcome this perceived weakness.1 In the following, we explain the emergence of the concept, and then consider and compare two further branches of development in Germany and Japan in the years around 1940, taking the circumstances of the two countries at that time into account.

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Notes

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Authors
  1. Tetsushi Harada
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Ethical Economy and Business Culture, The Hannover Institute of Philosophical Research, Gerberstraße 26, D-30169, Hannover, Germany

    Peter Koslowski

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Harada, T. (1997). Two Developments of the Concept of Anschauliche Theorie (Concrete Theory) in Germany and Japan. In: Koslowski, P. (eds) Methodology of the Social Sciences, Ethics, and Economics in the Newer Historical School. Studies in Economic Ethics and Philosophy. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59095-5_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59095-5_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-63849-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-59095-5

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