Basic sociological terms

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The term sociological basic concepts was introduced into sociology by Max Weber (1913, 1922) . Weber very effectively continued the conceptual work that was already shaped by Auguste Comte , Ferdinand Tönnies and Émile Durkheim , among others .

Weber was primarily concerned with the definition of terms in an empirical sociology. He defined sustainably what “ action ”, “ social action ” and “ meaning ” should mean. In seventeen paragraphs (“ Economy and Society ”) further sociological terms are developed and axiomatized .

Occasion and goal of Weber's sociological concept formation

Weber was concerned with developing uniform terms for the sociologist so that “what every empirical sociology actually means when it speaks of the same things” is formulated in “correct pedantic language”. This determines the occasion and the goal: the different sociological terminology of that time should be prepared for empirical studies. In “ Economy and Society ” (1922), essential sociological terms are defined: “ Action ”, “ Social action ”, “ Sense ” and “Types of action” (“rational”, “value-rational”, “affective”, “traditional”) . First of all, Weber defines simple terms. In the course of the chapter, complex terms are introduced: “ Rule ”, “Political Association”, “Hierocratic Association”. Here the definition of the concept is blurred with the description and analysis (see also Weber's “ ideal type ”). If Weber's claim was initially for a nominal definition (definition of a term by listing the predicates), Weber then switched to the Aristotelian essence definition (next higher genus - genus proximum - plus specific difference - differentia specifica ), which is then extensive.

Further development of basic sociological terms

Weber had a great influence on the American sociology around Talcott Parsons and Robert Merton , especially with his “basic sociological concepts” . In particular, Parsons was concerned in his "structure-functional systems theory" ( see structure functionalism ) with a conceptual apparatus that he found in Ferdinand Tönnies and Max Weber. Parsons embeds “ social action ” (Max Weber) in a system and asked what a system must achieve in order to survive. Parsons' Answer: Each social system has four functions satisfy ( AGIL ): adaptation to the environment ( A Daption ), ability to define goals ( G oal Attainment ), integration of their individuals ( I ntegration ) and preservation of structures ( L atent Pattern Maintenance ); thus his most important basic sociological concepts are fixed.

Basic concepts as axioms

For Weber, the basic sociological terms were merely a collection of definitions considered useful for empirical research so that everyone would know what was meant. Parsons went a step further - much more ambitiously - and built his basic concepts into a system as " axioms " . According to the general opinion, axioms should satisfy four requirements: They are (1) free of contradictions, (2) independent, (3) exhaustive and (4) evident. Weber's basic sociological concepts are certainly not independent (2); the question of completeness (3) is - unlike Tönnies - not even asked by Weber; the consistency (1) at Weber has yet to be checked; Weber can only refer to the evidence (4).

As early as the 1950s, René König pointed out the need to further develop the basic concepts towards axiomatization. He was concerned with a theory of categories or axiomatics as an analysis of the a priori structures of thinking. König explicitly refers to Immanuel Kant (see Kant, Critique of Pure Reason '' ). Tönnies' (“ pure sociology ”) and even more Weber were influenced by Kant. For König, basic sociological terms are “ interaction ” (= “social action”), “ role ”, “ position ”, “ situation ”, “orientation” and the like. a.

The models here are on the one hand the axioms for natural numbers formed by Peano in mathematics and the axioms for geometry formulated by David Hilbert (including Wigand Siebel ).

Most recently, Renate Mayntz (2006) considered whether free will is a useful axiom for sociological analyzes: It is not free will that makes people act socially, but rather, by following rules, people act socially (cf. voluntarism ).

Basic sociological terms today

As editor of the textbook on sociology (2007), Hans Joas introduces five “key terms” in sociology: “ social structure ”, “ social action ”, “ culture ”, “ power ” and “functional integration”. His aim is to capture the most important dimensions of social life.

Bernhard Schäfers / Johannes Kopp (2006), on the other hand, tie in with Max Weber's ideas. Just like this one, you are concerned with a “conceptual and theoretical foundation of sociology” for “orientation and introduction” to sociology. With this, the idea of ​​axiomatically introducing “basic concepts” as terminological concepts that cannot be further analyzed and placing them at the beginning of theories / systems is given up. Schäfers / Kopp thus - like other sociologists - take into account the fact that there is currently “no uniform doctrine” in sociology ( preface ).

literature

  • Weber, Max, About some categories of understanding sociology , Published in: Logos , International Journal for Philosophy of Culture 4 (1913). Pp. 253–294 ("Logos IV")
  • Weber, Max, Economy and Society , 1922, 1925, Part One, Chapter I. "Basic Sociological Concepts"
  • Weber, Max, Writings on Sociology , Reclam, Introduction by Michael Sukale , 1995, 2005
  • Tönnies, Ferdinand, Introduction to Sociology , 1931
  • Parson, Talcott, The Social System , 1951
  • König, René (Ed.): Sociology , Frankfurt am Main, 1958 ff.
  • Mayntz, Renate, invitation to shadow boxing. Sociology and modern biology , MPIfG Discussion Paper 06/7
  • Encyclopedia Philosophy and Philosophy of Science , Ed .: Jürgen Mittelstraß , Stuttgart [1995] 2004 (especially the articles “Axiom” and “Concept, simpler”).
  • Schäfers, Bernhard / Kopp, Johannes, Basic Concepts in Sociology , Wiesbaden 2006
  • Joas, Hans (ed.), Textbook of Sociology , 2007 (3rd ed.)