max weber capitalism and the protestant ethic

Weber argued that before the cause of an action could be ascertained you had to understand the meaning attached to it by the individual.

This final point can be illustrated by a quote from one of his most important works ‘Economy and Society’, first published in the 1920s, in which he said ‘Sociology is a science concerning itself with interpretive understanding of social action and thereby with a causal explanation of its course and consequences.’ Max Weber – NOT a happy bunny Social Action and Verstehen thirdly, he still argued that structure shaped human action, because certain societies or groups encourage certain general types of motivation (but within these general types, there is a lot of variation possible).secondly, he believed we could make generalisations about the basic types of motivation for human action (there are four basic types) and.

Firstly he argued that ‘Verstehen’ or empathatic understanding is crucial to understanding human action and social change, a point which he emphasised in his classic study ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’.Weber saw both structural and action approaches as necessary to developing a full understanding of society and social change.įor the purposes of A level Sociology we can reduce Weber’s extensive contribution to Sociology to three things: Max Weber: Three Key Points Max Weber (1864-1920) was one of the founding fathers of Sociology. Evaluations of Max Weber’s Social Action Theory.

Weber’s Four Types of Action (and types of society).

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

Max weber capitalism and the protestant ethic