Realist Approach in Max Weber's Theories

Document Type : Methodologies

Authors

• Zeinolabedin Afshar ¹
• Saeid Mahmoudi ²

¹ Assistant Professor of Sociology, Arak University, Arak, Iran

² Master of Sociology, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22067/social.2023.81510.1323

Abstract

Max Weber's sociology cannot be easily placed under both positivism and understanding-interpretation paradigms. Examining Weber's theories shows that his works have many components of critical realism. Critical realism believes that the real world exists independently of human knowledge. The world consists of structures, forces, mechanisms, and events. The world maintains itself through these properties. In the social world, social actions can play the role of causal mechanisms and create outcomes. The causes of actors happen in a specific social situation, and are among the issues that create a phenomenon. In fact, structures activate causal mechanisms in the social context and shape an event. This paradigm uses structure/mechanism/context/event configuration to explain the social world. In this way, it uses a retroduction strategy, and abstract concepts and models. Influenced by neo-Kantians, Weber’s epistemic system differentiates between reality and value. It is a specialized science that examines reality. Social reality is a meaningful phenomenon that can be described by what is called meaning adequacy, and can be explained, which is called causal sufficiency. Weber's strategy is understanding and retroduction strategy. The book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is an example of a hermeneutic interpretation and a brilliant example of the discovery of the causal mechanism, in which dignified group, the Protestants, through the religious orientation of asceticism and the value of work, were able to shape the capitalist economic spirit willingly and unwillingly

Keywords

• Critical Realism
• Idealism
• Understanding
• Retroduction
• Causal Mechanism

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