Max Weber's Verstehen method is examined in the light of contemporary intellectual background in Germany. It is argued that Verstehen was orig inally developed by Wilhelm Dilthey and Georg Simmel as the method of Geisteswissenschaften. According to Dilthey, Verstehen explains the psy chological reality of the individual, the ultimate basis of all human actions. Both Dilthey and Simmel maintained that social actions must be understood in terms of the 'inner-motives' of the acting individuals. By contrast, Weber defined Verstehen as a method of empirical science which attempts to understand the 'meaning' of action, not the motives of acting individuals.
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