{{short description|Max Weber's methodological position}} [[File:Max Weber 1894.jpg|thumb|Max Weber, the creator of this concept]]
'''Value-freedom''' is a methodological position that the sociologist Max Weber offered that aimed for the researcher to become aware of their own values during their scientific work, to reduce as much as possible the biases that their own value-judgements could cause.<ref>* {{Cite encyclopedia |year=2016 |title=The Max Weber Dictionary: Key Words and Central Concepts |publisher=Stanford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_c3Mcnh8hCgC |edition=Second |page=364 |doi=10.1515/9781503600225 |isbn=978-1-5036-0022-5 |oclc=956984918 |last2=Agevall |first2=Ola |last1=Swedberg |first1=Richard|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
The demand developed by Max Weber is part of the criteria of scientific neutrality.<ref>From the "Axiology" article in [https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/axiology Encyclopedia.com], from Evandro Agazzi</ref>
The aim of the researcher in the social sciences is to make research about subjects structured by values, while offering an analysis that will not be, itself, based on a value-judgement. According to this concept, the researcher should make of these values an "object", without passing on them a prescriptive judgement.<ref>Marc-Kevin Daoust, in [https://www.cairn-int.info/abstract-E_RESS_531_0199--rethinking-axiological-neutrality.htm this article], in ''Revue européenne des sciences sociales'', 2015/1, online in Cairn</ref>
In this way, Weber developed a distinction between "value-judgement" and "link to the values". The "link to the values" describes the action of analysis of the researcher who, by respecting the principle of the value-freedom, makes of cultural values several facts to analyse without venturing a prescriptive judgement on them, i. e. without passing a value judgement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blum |first=Fred H. |date=1944 |title=Max Weber's Postulate of 'Freedom' from Value Judgments |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=46–52 |doi=10.1086/219498 |issn=0002-9602 |jstor=2770341 |s2cid=144281531}}</ref>
The original term comes from the German ''werturteilsfreie Wissenschaft'', and was introduced by Max Weber.<ref>[http://encyclo-philo.fr/neutralite-scientifique-a/ ''Neutralité scientifique'' (in French)], Marc-Kevin Daoust, septembre 2017</ref>
==Bibliography== * Max Weber, ''Max Weber on the Methodology of the Social Sciences '', 1949 * {{cite book |last=Weber |first=Max |year=1946 |chapter=Science as a Vocation |translator-last=Gerth |translator-first=H. H. |translator2-last=Mills |translator2-first=C. Wright |editor-last=Gerth |editor-first=H. H. |editor2-last=Mills |editor2-first=C. Wright |title=From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |pages=129–156 |url=https://sociology.sas.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/Weber-Science-as-a-Vocation.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250614101042/https://sociology.sas.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/Weber-Science-as-a-Vocation.pdf |archive-date=14 June 2025 |access-date=28 July 2025 |url-status=live}}
==See also== * Empirical research * Epistemology * Is–ought problem * Scientific method * Objectivity (philosophy) * Philosophy of science
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Category:1949 introductions Category:Max Weber Category:Research ethics Category:Social science methodology