SOC 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: The German Ideology, Young Hegelians, For Marx
Document Summary
Turning to the question of action, we again find two answers labeled here as non rational and rational. Specifically, action is primarily nonrational when it is guided by values, morals, norms, traditions, the quest for meaning, unconscious desires, and/or emotional states. The rationalists contend that individual and group actions are motivated primarily by the attempt to maximize rewards while minimizing costs. Recognize the general tendencies that exist within each theorist"s body of work and. Compare and contrast (and argue about) thinkers" general theoretical orientations. Whether we are consciously aware of them or not, our everyday life is filled with theories as we seek to understand the world around us. The importance of formal sociological theorizing is that it makes assumptions and categories explicit; hence open to examination, scrutiny, and reformulation. The four cells are identified as individual-nonrational, individual-rational, collective-nonrational, and collective-rational. Yet, we cannot overemphasize that these four coordinates are ideal types ; theorists and theories are never pure.
