Max Weber Flashcards
During what time did Max Weber study the modern western society?
Shift from Feudalism to Capitalism and Industrialization
Gist of Weber’s theories
combination of positivism and subjectivism; specific + general to give justice to the complex nature of life
Device that Weber developed to develop generalizations
Heuristic Tools
True or False. Heuristic Tools do not show the absolute representations of the world.
True
Why did Weber combined the specific to the general?
History is unique, however, for the real world to be studied, sociology must develop concepts that can generalize most phenomena.
An approach of understanding social phenomenon and people resulting in thick descriptions
Verstehen
The probability that an event will be followed or accompanied by another event
Causality –> interrelationships
Basis of Causality
- subjective understanding of society
- historical meanings and reasons
Substantive Sociology
Weber’s sociology of multi-causal approach
A mental construct and heuristic device constructed through verstehen to understand a specific aspect of the social world or a historical individual
Ideal Types
Four Ideal Types
- Historical Ideal Types
- General Sociological Ideal Types
- Action Ideal Types
- Structural Ideal Types
Values and Teaching according to Max Weber
Teachers should control their personal values in the classroom
- objective
- scientific
- work is separated from political ideology
Values and Research according to Max Weber
- Value-Relevance in selecting the project or problem
- Value Judgment in analysis of the Data
- Objectivity in the data collection
Heuristic Device and Empirical Data
- heuristic device represents reality
- heuristic device serves as the conceptual framework in studying phenomena that produces empirical data
- empirical data may not be representative of the data
- the new empirical data may produce new heuristic device
Sociology according to Max Weber
- science
- concerned with the causality of social action
- uses interpretive understanding (verstehen)
Authority according to Max Weber
- structure
- ideal type
- heuristic device
According to Rational-Legal Authority, what is the purest type of exercise of legal authority and rationality?
Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy’s functions
process
mechanism
system
structure
Ideal-Type of Bureaucracy
- highest degree of efficiency
- most rational authority
- most precise, stable, stringent, and reliable
- superior in its scope of operations
- capable of application to all kinds of administrative tasks
Cons of of Bureaucracy
- iron cage –> imprisonment; alienate; estrange
- unshatterable; escape proof; hard to destroy
Key to fix the problems of bureaucracy
Vocation instead of profession
