Max Weber’s Verstehen Perspective of Sociology

Max Weber’s Verstehen perspective of sociology is an attempt to understand social behavior from the perspective of the individuals who manifest those behaviors. Studying subjective aspects of behavior entails studying the meanings attributed by individuals to their actions and provides a more accurate understanding of human behavior. Understanding why people behave the way they do requires putting into consideration the meanings these people attach to their behavior. Max Weber argued that understanding how people interact within social groups starts with understanding what motivates people to behave in the way they do.

In my humble opinion, the difference between a blink and a wink could mean that understanding human social behavior by studying both the objective aspects and subjective aspects of society may provide better answers than just studying subject aspects of society. In this analogy, a blink and a wink may seem similar to each other at a cursory examination but are very different. Max Weber’s Verstehen perspective of sociology seeks to understand social phenomena from an insider’s viewpoint by incorporating the meanings that individuals attach to their behavior (Vyain, Scaramuzzo, Cody-Rydzewski, Griffiths, Strayer, Keirns, . . . Little, 2014). For instance, the black lives matter protests and the behavior of participants observed can be more accurately interpreted by the sociologist by understanding that objective aspects and subjective aspects that are separate and supplement each other which should be understood to be complementary for a more accurate understanding of the protesting behavior to be achieved.

Thus, using Verstehen may help shed light on why individuals participate in protests and provide insightful information to policymakers and administrators. This information can shed light on how to solve the various social problems in existence. Employing Verstehen is important in that it provides the framework for reconciling different perspectives into one holistic model of how different aspects of society function. Sociology thus needs to be both a quantitative and a qualitative science.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Vyain, S., Scaramuzzo, G., Cody-Rydzewski, S., Griffiths, H., Strayer, E., Keirns, N., . . . Little, W. (2014, November 06). Chapter 1. An Introduction to Sociology. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter1-an-introduction-to-sociology/