{"id":4483,"date":"2019-09-18T20:56:49","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T15:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=4483"},"modified":"2019-09-18T20:56:49","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T15:26:49","slug":"sociology-i-previous-year-solved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/sociology-i-previous-year-solved\/","title":{"rendered":"Sociology-I: Previous year Solved"},"content":{"rendered":"

Explain how Max Weber\u2019s \u2018Interpretive Sociology\u2019 has added new dimensions to the subject matter and methodology of sociology.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Answer format-<\/strong><\/p>\n

The dual character of society in terms of its \u2018objective facts\u2019 <\/strong>and \u2018subjective meanings\u2019 <\/strong>is what makes it a reality \u2018sui-generis\u2019. Max Weber emphasized the meaningfulness of human-behavior and social<\/strong> relationships <\/strong>in his approach of \u2018interpretative sociology\u2019 or \u2018micro-sociology\u2019. <\/strong>Interpretative sociology, considers the \u2018individual and his actions\u2019 <\/strong>as the basic unity, as it \u2018atom\u2019. <\/strong>Thinking rational individuals attribute specifiable reasons to their action-patterns and the task of sociology, according to Weber, is to understand their \u2018assigned meanings\u2019. Weber argued that \u2018knowledge about nature\u2019 and \u2018knowledge<\/strong> about human-beings\u2019 are categorically incomparable<\/strong>. A scientific analysis of only the \u2018observable phenomena to the exclusion of subjective meanings and motives behind individual actions, would be undermining the \u2018dual character of society and it s scientific explanation.<\/p>\n

In, Economy and Society<\/strong>, Weber argued that \u2018Sociology is a science concerning itself with the interpretive understanding <\/strong>of social action and thereby with a causal explanation <\/strong>of its course and consequences.\u2019 Action<\/strong>, according to Weber, is all human-behaviour to which an actor attaches subjective-meaning<\/strong>. Action is social <\/strong>in so far by virtue of the subjective meaning attached to it by the acting individual, it takes account of the behavior of others and is thereby oriented in its course.<\/p>\n

Therefore, Weber through his interpretative approach tried to spell out the precise limits of what could and could not be explained in sociological terms. He identified various types of action that are distinguished by the meanings <\/strong>on which they are based. These include:<\/p>\n

a) Zweckrational action <\/strong>or rational action in relation to a goal.<\/p>\n

b) Wertrational action <\/strong>or rational action in relation to a value.<\/p>\n

c) Affective or emotional action.<\/strong><\/p>\n

d) Traditional actions <\/strong>where both ends and means are determined by custom.<\/p>\n

Weber through his interpretative approach shifted the focus on \u2018individuals\u2019 <\/strong>and pattern and regularities of actions rather than the collectivity. He treated the \u2018collectivities\u2019 <\/strong>as solely the resultants and modes of organization of the particular acts of individual persons.<\/p>\n

Making a distinction between the physical scientist studying non-human matter and social scientists studying human behavior, Weber argued that the social scientist had an added advantage of understanding a phenomena from the \u201cinside<\/strong>\u201d rather than only observing uniformities and deducing generalization. Weber\u2019s methodology <\/strong>of explaining subject-matter of sociology was therefore based upon the conviction that the social scientist can \u201cunderstand\u201d meaningful social relationships.<\/p>\n

This understanding or \u2018Verstehen\u2019 <\/strong>according to Weber can be distinguished into two types. One is \u201cdirect observational understanding<\/strong>\u201d but this according to Weber is not a sufficient level of understanding to explain social action. The second or explanatory understanding <\/strong>is to understand the meaning of an action in terms of the motives of the actor. This involves \u2018sympathetic introspection\u2019<\/strong> which means to put one self imaginatively in the place of the actor and thus sympathetically to participate in the experience\u2019. This necessitated a trained social scientist.<\/p>\n

Another complementing analytical device in Weber\u2019s methodology has been the \u2018ideal-types<\/strong>; they are categorizing process enabling the scientist to contrast the actual types, with their common ideals-type and thereby ascertaining the part played by irrationality, chance, emotional or other elements in any social action. They aid causal explanations of a actions or events.<\/p>\n

Sociology under Weber, through his interpretative approach asserted its uniqueness and distinctiveness from the physical sciences<\/strong>. \u2018Subjective understanding\u2019 is the specific characteristic of sociological knowledge. Weber\u2019s \u2018action theory\u2019 further helped in developing theories of individuals and their behaviour\u2014symbolic interactionism<\/strong>, phenomenology <\/strong>and so on.<\/p>\n

However, according to Alfred Schutz<\/strong>, Weber\u2019s work on mental processes in only suggestive and hardly the basis for a systematic micro sociology. Though Weber\u2019s interpretative sociology was about the study of \u2018small scale processes\u2019 most of his work is focused on large-scale structures <\/strong>(bureaucracy and capitalism). The actions of those in these structures are determined by the structures and not by their motives.<\/p>\n

However Weber\u2019s interpretative sociology for the first time introduced a scientific analysis of the rich breadth and depth of human behavior and emotions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Explain how Max Weber\u2019s \u2018Interpretive Sociology\u2019 has added new dimensions to the subject matter and methodology of sociology. Answer format-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114,115],"tags":[392],"class_list":["post-4483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sociology-optional","category-sociology-optional-paper-i","tag-union-public-service-commission-upsc"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4484,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483\/revisions\/4484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}