It will be pointed out and we ourselves have already admitted, that in a particular instance the course of a concrete historical event can be made vividly clear without its being analyzed in terms of explicitly defined concepts. But it should be added that in this procedure, the attainment of a level of explicit awareness of the viewpoint from which the events in question get their significance remains highly accidental. Every type of purely direct concrete description bears the mark of artistic portrayal. Each sees what is in his own heart. Valid judgments always presuppose the logical analysis of what is concretely and immediately perceived, i.e. the use of concepts.
Collective concepts taken from the language of everyday life have particularly unwholesome effects.
This list could be tremendously increased, without coming to an end although we have been as summary and imprecise as possible. The illustrations which we have chosen and our even briefer analyses are crude and simplified. The clear-cut, sharply defined analysis of the various possible standpoints is the only path which will lead us out of verbal confusion. Their peculiar character is brought out by the confrontation of empirical reality with the ideal-type. The use of the undifferentiated collective concepts of everyday speech is always a cloak for confusion of thought and action.