Hermeneutics, Weber, Constructivism

1. HERMENEUTICS & NEO-KANTIANISM
Hermeneutics is a system of interpreting human meaning and values which
are structurally linked to inseparable from the culture, time an place where
they are observed.
1. Positivist methodology is too restrictive to capture human motivation in
its entirety; it’s better suited for natural science
2. Contrasts with the rational choice perspective where decisions are
based on the utility maximization principle
Jürgen Habermas
Wilhelm Dilthey

2. HERMENEUTICS & NEO-KANTIANISM
 Humans are feeling creatures; more than rational
 Theology / metaphysics removed from academia, but still present in
society
 Introspection / interpretation / divination needed to understand the human
experience
 Social and cultural-historical study is separate from natural science
 Assuming other humans share similar qualities to the observer;
motivations, culture, and mindset can be reconstructed to understand a
subject’s reality
 The subjective, emotive and reasoned values a subject holds are derived
from a system of meaning that is bound to time and place.
 A commonly (culturally) shared normative structure is created by
communication and interaction
 Through this form of interpretation, it is possible to overcome subject-
object divide

3. Theory Concepts Comparative Analysis
Weberian Economic Ontology - society in Unlike Positivism, he
Sociology which subjects are believed there to be a
motivated by a separation between
combination of ‘value social sciences and
rationality’ natural sciences.
Epistemology – gain He developed his work
insight into society by in the antipositivist,
interpreting what hermeneutic tradition.
motivates others
Relationship between
cultural values and
beliefs that structure
society.

4. WEBERIAN ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY
•The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
•The connection between religion and the development of Capitalism:
Protestanism (notably Calvinism) related both religious conviction
and professional ethic on the idea of predestination
• Subjective Rationality, Irrational World
• Social action is motivated by a specific rationality that combines
instrumental rationality with normative commitments – ‘value
rationality’
• Reality as such cannot be known – it is inherently irrational
•Weber’s Legacy:
•Methodology - ‘Ideal-types’ - concepts in which some element or
aspect has been raised to compare with experienced facts
•Value Community – Most important of human communities – the
nation.
•Theory of Action – Subjects act on the basis of ‘values’

5. Theory Concepts Comparative
Analysis
Constructivism 1. A subjective ontology in which 1. Rational
agents construct their own world and Choice Theory
in which any rationality that the world
reveals, must be traced to the agents
investing in it.
2. The inter-subjective constitution of 2. Positivism and
the social world via ideational neo-Positivism
interaction; there are no natural laws
of society or economics or politics.

6. FROM CARR TO CONSTRUCTIVISM
“Anarchy is what states make of it.” – Alexander Wendt
What is Constructivism?
The focus of constructivism is on human awareness and its place in world
affairs, analysing the ideas and beliefs that inform actors as well as the shared
understanding between them. It rejects the premise put forward by Rational Choice
theorist that humans are ‘pre-social’.
Constructivism concerns itself with the relationship between agents and structures.
How do agents produce structures and how do structures produce agents?
“…we are cultural beings with the capacity and the will to take a deliberate
attitude toward the world and lend it significance.” – Max Weber

7. Rational Choice vs. Constructivism
Rational Choice Constructivism
Rational choice begins with the Actors are social – knowledge
individual. Actors are pre-social, rational shapes how actors interpret and
and self-interested beings. construct their social reality
Rational choice treats individual Interests are constructed by the
interests as fixed – utility maximizing environment and social interactions.
individuals
The ‘environment’ regulates the actions As the world is constructed by social
of pre-social individuals/actors. As interactions and inter-subjective
humans are born with a propensity to awareness, individuals/actors can
maximize their utility, whatever happens be shaped by their environments
in the social world can be explained by within a specific place and time.
individual choices.