Sociology 2233 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Ideal Type, Social Fact, Nominalism
12 Oct 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
2233 Social Psychologists - Weber Oct 12/16
Max Weber (1864): attempting to practice value free sociology – however he was
unsuccessful in this regard
Why we can not consider Weber a Social Psychologist
Weber breaks the line between nominal and realism in Conceptual
o Claims his sociology is value free which is why he isn’t considered a social
psychologist
Advocated/Practiced the coordination of knowledge
o Felt that certain social science disciplines should inform one’s research
questions and the methods in which we investigate these questions
Sociology and History should be the basis on which we form
questions and investigations **to him – most important social
sciences
o Weber’s historical Sociology – seeks to develop a set of clearly defined
concepts or what he called ‘ideal types’ with which to execute a causal
analysis of historical events.
We are going to focus on 3 things:
Weber on Facts and Values:
o On the view that facts and values are to be kept separate
He wanted the social science and politics to be objective so we
needed to use just facts
Wanted to remove the social philosophizing
Eliminate ethical nominalism and realism
Argues values have no place in publications, classroom or politics
Weber’s Theory of Social Action:
o He was sensitive to the idea that information (what we know) is a product
of a process of communication
He is suggesting a new unit of analysis that doesn’t discuss social
facts
He is saying no to social facts – his new unit of analysis is
called Social Action
Argues that the world is full of social actions in which
human beings are trying to coordinate their actions
with one another by attempting to understand the
meaning states of the other in some on going social
exchange or interaction. What interests Weber is the
possibility of shared meaning and action motivated by
willful intentional behaviour.
o Therefore action for weber is constituted by the
subjective meanings that persons give for their
actions. Actions are only classified as an action
if they are justified by reason or intentional. He
is not interested in random events.
Ex. Tripping and falling isn’t an action
because it isn’t intentional. But
purposely kicking a ball is an action
because it is intentional.
For Comte and Durkheim human beings are Egoistic,
but for Weber they are innately Social.
1. No Claims made about human beings basic nature
(Comte/Durkheim -> Egoistic, Marx -> Social and
Productive)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Max weber (1864): attempting to practice value free sociology however he was unsuccessful in this regard. Why we can not consider weber a social psychologist. Weber breaks the line between nominal and realism in conceptual: claims his sociology is value free which is why he isn"t considered a social psychologist. Advocated/practiced the coordination of knowledge: felt that certain social science disciplines should inform one"s research questions and the methods in which we investigate these questions. We are going to focus on 3 things: Weber on facts and values: on the view that facts and values are to be kept separate. He wanted the social science and politics to be objective so we needed to use just facts. Argues values have no place in publications, classroom or politics. Weber"s theory of social action: he was sensitive to the idea that information (what we know) is a product of a process of communication.
