Sociology

1. MAX WEBER
(1864-1920)
SocialTheory notes

2. Biographical Details
 1864: born to upper middle class Protestant German family; autocratic
politician father and devout, shy, Calvinist mother
 1882: goes to college and joins father’s fraternity: drinks, brawls, gets hugely
fat, acquires dueling scar
 1893: marries cousin, Marianne
 1894: becomes college professor
 1897-1902: struck by paralyzing nervous breakdown after father’s death;
unable to work
 1904-05: writes The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism after visit to
U.S.
 1910: founds German SociologicalAssociation
 1914: supports German involvement inWorldWar I as legitimate defense
against Russia and struggle for “honor”
 1918: returns to teaching after 20 years, begins Economy and Society, seems
to finally recover from mental trauma and enjoy life
 1919: politically active with coalition of center-left parties
 1920: dies of pneumonia

3. Introduction
ding to the standard interpretation,Weber
conceived of sociology as a comprehensive
science of social action.
 His initial theoretical focus is on the
subjective meaning that humans attach to
their actions and interactions within specific
social contexts.

4. Marx and Weber
 “silent dialogue” with Marx
 “rounding out” Marx’s views on capitalism (transformative impact of
Puritanism and cultural values)
 Agreements:
 1. Structural factors giving rise to modern society
 2. Mapping connections between factors influencing individual action –
“The social order is of course conditioned by the economic order to a
high degree, and in turn reacts upon it.”
 3. Structural limitations on individual actions (importance of class,
alienation and “iron cage”)
 Key disagreements:
 1.The nature of science
 2.The inevitability of history
 3. Economic determinism

5.  Although he too was critical of modern
Capitalism as Marx was, he did not advocate
revolutionary change. He wanted society to
change gradually, not overthrow it. He had
little faith in the ability of the masses to
create a better society.
 He place the nation above all else: The vital
interest of the nation stand above democracy
and parlimentarianism.

6. The Nature of Science
 Advocated “value-free” research with clearly defined
concepts for objective sociology
 Values may influence choice of topic, but not actual
analysis
 Argues that Marxists confuse “what is” and “what ought
to be”
 Importance of Understanding (verstehen) subjective
perceptions instead of positing “scientific” laws – “The
reduction of empirical reality… to ‘laws’ is meaningless…
A systematic science of culture… would be senseless” –
instead he looks for contextualized patterns

7.  Verstehen roughly translates to "meaningful
understanding" or putting yourself in the
shoes of others to see things from their
perspective. Interpretive sociology differs
from positivist sociology in three ways:

8.  Interpretive sociology deals with the
meaning attached to behavior, unlike
positivist sociology which focuses on action.
 Interpretive sociology sees reality as being
constructed by people, unlike positivist
sociology which sees an objective reality
"out there".
 Interpretive sociology relies on qualitative
data, unlike positivist sociology which tends
to make use of quantitative data.

9. The Inevitability of History
 Denies predictable “laws” of historical
development
 Capitalism arose from series of accidents,
including free labor force, industrialization,
rationalized accounting, codified law and
ownership, and “spirit of capitalism”

10. Social Action
 According to MaxWeber, "an Action is 'social' if the
acting individual takes account of the behavior of others
and is thereby oriented in its course".(Secher 1962)
 In this connection,Weber distinguishes between four
major types of social action:
 Zweckrational
 Wertrational
 Affective action
 Traditional action

11. Social Action
 As an advocate of multiple causation of
human behavior, Weber was well aware that
most behavior is caused by a mix of these
motivations.

12. Social Action
 He developed the typology because he was
primarily concerned with modern society and
how it differs from societies of the past.
 He proposed that the basic distinguishing
feature of modern society was a characteristic
shift in the motivation of individual behaviors.

13. Social Action
In modern society the efficient application of
means to ends (zweckrational) has come to
dominate and replace other springs of social
behavior.

14. Economic Determinism
 Refutes Marxist determinism:
 Protestant Ethic: importance of religious ideas in
shaping behavior
 Economy and Society: systems of domination
maintained because they are viewed as
legitimate, overwhelming class divisions

15. Ideal Types
 A definition of an institution or type of
society that enumerates key or essential
features of the phenomenon
 May not match perfectly with any real,
concrete example

16.  An ideal type is an analytical construct that serves
the investigator as a measuring rod to ascertain
similarities as well as deviations in concrete cases.
 It provides the basic method for comparative
study.
 An ideal type is not meant to refer to moral
ideals. There can be an ideal type of a brothel or
of a chapel. Nor did Weber mean to refer to
statistical average.
 Ideal types enable one to construct hypotheses
linking them with the conditions that brought
the phenomenon or event into prominence, or
with consequences that follow from its
emergence.

17. Max Weber: Objectivity in Social
Science
 Only way to escape the subjectivity of researcher is the
use of ideal types
 Ideal types must be explained in detail to understand
how the historian would like the word to be interpreted.
 Confuses theory and history
 Capitalism and Democracy?
 Church and sect?
 If a historian does not pay attention to the use of ideal
types without elaboration, his work may be vaguely felt.

18. Max Weber: Objectivity in Social
Science
 Ideal types usually represent what is essential to the expositor in
that period in time.
 Ex. Christianity
 If a historian portrays the ideas he feels are essential to Christianity
this will represent his “idea” of Christianity
 This ideal may differ from the values of other persons say the early
Christians or people with similar beliefs but in different
denominations
 This creates an invalid interpretation
 There must be a precise distinction between logically comparative
analysis of reality by ideal types in the logical sense and the value
judgment of reality on the basis of ideals.

19.  Weber's four kinds of ideal types are
distinguished by their levels of abstraction.
Historical Ideal Types- First are the ideal
types rooted in historical particularities, such
as the "western city," "the Protestant Ethic,“
that appear only in specific historical periods
and in particular cultural areas.
 General Sociological Ideal Types- A second
kind involves abstract elements of social
reality-such concepts as "bureaucracy" etc.
that may be found in a variety of historical
and cultural contexts.

20.  Action Ideal Types- which Raymond Aron
calls "rationalizing reconstructions of a
particular kind of behavior.” Eg- Social
Action vis-a-vis Weber
 Structural Ideal Types- Causes and
consequences of Social action (authority
etc.)

21.  “ I became one (A sociologist) in order to put
an end to collectivist notions. In other
words, Sociology too can be practised by
proceeding from the action of one or more,
few or many individuals, that means by
employing a strictly ‘individualist’ method.”
 He was deeply concerned with meaning…
the way it was formed..

22. Weber’s Ideal Type Analysis
of Structures of Authority
 1. Charismatic Domination (Legitimate sources of Domination= Authority) based on
force of personality of inspirational leaders
 Emerges in times of crisis when old values fail
 unstable over long periods--problem of routinization (succession and day to day
operations)
 Examples: Hitler, Gandhi
 2. Traditional Domination – legitimacy claimed and believed in by virtue of the
sanctity of ancient custom that cannot be challenged by reason
 3. Rational-Legal Domination – by statute and legal norms – procedure
 Seen in modern bureaucracies and in system of political parties
 Separation of personal and legal affairs
 High degree of specialization
 Uniformly applied rules

23.  Domination- He defined D as the “probability
that certain specific commands will be
obeyed by a given group of persons.”
 It can have a variety of bases both legitimate
and illegitimate.
 Weber was interested in the legitimate
sources of domination i.e. Authority
 The central role in his sociology is the study
of the three bases on which authority is made
legitimate to its followers- rational,
traditional, Charismatic!

24. Ideal Types of Social
Stratification
(Individualist Method??)
 1. Class
 2. Status Group
 3. Party
 Weber refused to reduce stratification to
economic factors (or class, inWeber’s terms)
but saw it as multidimensional.

25. Class
 Persons who have a common life chances
 represented by economic interests in the possession of
goods and opportunities for income
 Statistical aggregates – not communities – in the same
class or market situation
 Represented under the conditions of the commodity or
labour markets.
 Marx (2 classes) vs.Weber (more differentiated)

26. Communal Action and Class
 Possibilities of group formation and unified political action
 Rare, since they usually fail to recognize common interest
 Happens under certain cultural conditions:
 1. Large numbers perceive themselves in same class situation
 2. Ecologically concentrated (i.e. in urban areas)
 3. Clearly understood goals articulated by an intelligentsia
 4. Clearly identified opponents
 5. Naked, transparent exercise of class power
 “Communalization” = “feeling of the actors that they belong together.”
 “SocietalAction” = “rationally motivated adjustment of interests”
 Examples
 Russia,
 Misdirected Class Struggle (examples?)

27. Power vs. Honor
 Not all power is “economically conditioned”
 Not all power entails “social honor”
 But, “the social order is of course conditioned by the economic order
to a high degree, and in turn reacts upon it”

28. Status Group
 Persons who share “a specific, positive or negative, social estimation
of honor”
 Subjective rather than Objective
 Expressed and reinforced through lifestyle rather than market
situation or economic behavior
 Amorphous communities
 Lifestyle and taste reinforcing status (Bourdieu)
 Rests on distance and exclusiveness
 Limiting of social interaction, marriage partners, social conventions and
activities, organizations and clubs, and “privileged modes of acquisition”
(such as property or occupations)

29. Status vs. Class
 Consumption
 More important in times of
stability
 Importance of fashion/lifestyle
(“all ‘stylization’ of life either
originates in status groups or is
at least conserved by them”)
 Subjective Position
 Reaction against “pretensions of
purely economic acquisition”
(new money)
 James Bond
 Ethnicity (horizontal) and Caste
(vertical)
 Production
 Becomes particularly
important in times of
instability/rapid change
 Objective economic
position
 Not necessarily
communalized
 Money and
entrepreneurial position
may lead to status
appreciation, lack of
property may lead to
status loss.

30. STATUS-Ethnicity, Caste,
Race
 Perception, not reality (they “believe in blood
relationship and exclude exogamous
marriage and social intercourse”)
 Ethnicity: horizontal (each allowed to believe
in superiority -- honor)
 Caste (vertical) includes race (subjective, not
biological)
 Pariah peoples

31. Party
 Oriented around a specific goal (can be a
“cause” or personal power)
 Related to, but separate from class and status
as three distinct stratification systems
 Party can be found in the political order.
 “Parties are always struggling for
domination”
 Most organised elements in Weber’s
stratification system, oriented to the
attainment of power.

32. Rationalization –Core of
Weber’s Substantive Sociology
 It is the case that Weber’s interest in a broad and overarching theme – the
‘specific and particular rationalism’ of Western Culture and its unique
origins and development – stands at the centre of his Sociology
 From use of money and credit in free markets to mediate transactions and
social relationships, and from unintentional changes in religion
 Formal rationality: means-to-ends calculation (distinct from substantive
rationality)
 Rise of bureaucratic rationalized state
 Replaces tradition, patronage, and other ways of regulating markets
 Reinforced and stimulated by random historical events and cultural factors
(religion)
 Rationalized economic system and state continually reinforce each other;
creating a monolith that cannot be opposed
 “disenchantment” of social world leads to “iron cage” of bureaucracy,
where social life is calculable, rational, efficient, and dull – no liberating
utopia should be expected from socialism or capitalism

33. Religiously Unmusical
 Key concerns- Relationship among a variety of
the world’s religions and the development only in
theWest of a Capitalist economic system.
 Major part of his work is done in social- structural
and cultural levels.
 Weber was interested primarily in the systems of
ideas of the world’s religions( Confucians,
Buddhists, Jews, Calvinists, Muslims, Catholics
and others) in the “spirit” of capitalism and in
rationalization as a modern system of norms and
values.

34. He engaged in Comparative- Historical
Sociology
 Economic forces influenced Protestantism.
 Economic forces influenced religions other than
Protestantism. (eg.- Hinduism, confucianism andTaoism)
 Religious idea systems influenced individual thoughts and
actions – in particular economic thoughts and actions
 Religious idea systems have been influential throughout
the world
 Religious idea systems (Protestantism in particular) have
had the unique effect in the West of helping to rationalize
the eco sector and every other institution
 Religious idea systems in the non- western world have
created overwhelming structural barriers to rationalization.

35. The Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism
1. Goodness ofWork:Work valued as an end in itself
2. Trade and profit taken as indicators of personal virtue
3. Methodically organized life governed by reason valued not only as
means to economic success, but as proper and righteous state of
being
4. . Delayed Gratification: Immediate happiness should be forgone in
favor of future satisfaction (avoidance of spontaneous enjoyment
and hedonism)
5. Taken together, this “spirit” of capitalism one of 7 factors that led to
rise of rationalized capitalist economies inWest

36. 
HAPPY READING!