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Global Health Econ Sustain Weber and Martineau: Bias in sociological method

2. Methods social), positioning sociology as a scientific interpretation
of social reality (Sell, 2017).
This research applies the bibliographic method, with a
central focus on comparing the works of Max Weber From the early proposal of Comte, various research
and Harriet Martineau. Thus, the present investigation methods specific to the social sciences have been developed.
employs a descriptive approach and, for an argumentative These include historical, comparative, monographic,
foundation, utilizes some of Weber’s productions, especially statistical, functional, structural, and ethnographic
The “Objectivity” of Knowledge in the Social Sciences, and methods (Marconi & Lakatos, 2010). In addition to these
Martineau’s work How to Observe: Morals and Manners, methods, one of the most well-known, the typological
some additional theoretical references, including books method, was developed by Max Weber, one of the key
and articles located from different databases, namely: figures in sociology (Sell, 2017).
Google Scholar, Web of Science, Education Resources
Information Center (ERIC), and JSTOR Digital Library, 3.1. Relevance of Weber in the scientific
from August to December 2022. methodology of social sciences
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber was born on April 21, 1864,
3. Results in Erfurt, Prussia, but his family moved to Berlin in 1869.
Sociological research and its methods have shown a huge He was the son of a lawyer and politician, Max Weber Sr.,
improvement in recent years. However, sociology, as a and Helene Weber, who was the daughter of poet George
scientific discipline, has its origins in the 19 century and is Friedrich Fallenstein (1790 – 1853). Weber grew up in a
th
shaped by diverse historical and social contexts. Although household with family tensions between his father, who
the focus of this text is not to delve into the origins of was more dedicated to worldly pleasures, and his mother,
sociology, it emerged in the wake of various economic a Calvinist who led an ascetic life with ideas of moral
events such as the Industrial Revolution, political events absolutism (Ritzer & Stepnisky, 2022). It is important to
like the French Revolution, and cultural movements like note that since his childhood, Weber had contact with
the Renaissance and, later, the Enlightenment. These many personalities in the academic world of Prussia,
events profoundly transformed the foundations of society including Dilthey and Mommsen (Alcantara, 2020), which
and redirected the course of history, giving rise to new likely influenced his subsequent formation. He studied
social relations (Sell, 2017). law, economics, and history at three different universities
In modernity, the emergence of science is often (Heidelberg, Berlin, and Göttingen). Weber died in 1920,
attributed to René Descartes (1596 – 1650), who developed and although he left behind an extensive body of work,
the idea of “methodical doubt” and broke with various many of his manuscripts were published posthumously, and
medieval dogmas. Subsequently, in line with Cartesian his scientific analyses and assumptions maintained a direct
ideals, empiricist philosophers began to emphasize the relationship with his political activity (Alcantara, 2020).
observation of facts, thereby reinforcing the empirical Unlike Comte and other sociologists who criticized the
basis of systematic scientific knowledge. As a synthesis assumptions of positivism, Weber considered sociology
of these movements, in the 17 century, Francis Bacon as a science that seeks to interpretively understand social
th
laid the foundations of what would later be called action and explain it causally in its course and effects
the “scientific method,” characterized by systematic (Weber, 2012). He centered his comprehensive sociological
observation, formulation of hypotheses, experimentation, theory on the relevance of the subject, rather than the
and subsequent inferences. Sell (2017) points out that object, based on the idea that the person who apprehends
three major motivations prompted the use of the scientific the facts is the central element in the analysis of social
method in the establishment of sociology: (1) What are reality, which constitutes a revolution in the social sciences
the causes of social transformations? (2) What are the (Sell, 2017). According to Weber, scientists must be skilled
characteristics of modern societies? and (3) What should in separating judgments of reality (what is) and judgments
be done in the face of social transformations? of value (what ought to be) in scientific analysis, to pursue
With the aim of approaching the resolution of genuine knowledge (Marconi & Lakatos, 2010). However,
these questions, Auguste Comte developed the idea of this does not imply that the analysis of judgments should
establishing a “social physics” and published the book be suppressed, as Weber stated: “By no means are value
Course of Positive Philosophy in 1830, proposing the judgments, because they ultimately rest on specific ideals
application of the scientific method to the study of society. and therefore have a “subjective” origin, excluded from
In 1836, he changed the name of this science to sociology scientific discussion. This is repeatedly contradicted by the
(from the Latin socius + logos, meaning the study of the practice and aim of our journal. Criticism does not stop

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.0992