Max Weber’s contribution to Social Thought
Max Weber was an important political thinker who contributed a lot to the philosophy of social thought. He was an effective and original thinker and made many significant contributions to social thought. He struggled hard to make sociology an independent science and gave that scientific methodology. Some of his important contributions may briefly be discussed.
Concept of Ideal Type:
In the field of sociology, his one important contribution was that he gave the idea of a new type. He developed the whole concept on scientific lines. He also introduced a scientific outlook to the whole philosophy. In fact, by introducing this concept, he made the study of sociology scientific and understandable.
Concept of Social Change:
He contributed to the field by giving the concept of social change. He made it amply clear that no single factor could be responsible for social change. He boldly challenged Marx’s view that only economic factor was responsible for social change. Along with economic factors, he studied the importance of religion in the study of social change. Religion had been completely forgotten by Marx, who called it the opium of the people.
Stress of Objectivity:
Another contribution is that he laid stress on objectivity. According to him, no problem should be studied with prior values and judgments. If that is done, then the results will be undependable. Therefore, he stressed objectivity in studying all problems, which is his real contribution to the thought.
His views about class interests:
Max Weber also made it amply clear that the concept of class interests was quite ambiguous. This was something real but had not been focused on by other social scientists. By making his views clear on this subject, he did a lot for subsequent social thinkers.
Inspite of all this, it cannot be denied that Max Weber contributed significantly to the philosophy of social thought. He tried to make sociology an independent science, to be studied only free from all sorts of value judgments so that the results could be impartial and dependable.
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