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

at value judgments. The question is: What does scientific or phenomenon in question. It should be noted that the
criticism of ideas and value judgments mean and intend?” ideal type is not found in everyday reality but serves as a
(Weber, 2006, p. 15). comparative parameter for analyzing observable social
In this sense, Weber (2006) suggested that value facts that lend themselves to a dichotomous division into
judgments should be treated scientifically to become “type” and “non-type” (Marconi & Lakatos, 2010).
comprehensible and subject to critical evaluation. In It is worth highlighting that the construction of the
addition, sociology, as an empirical science, does not ideal type is not merely arbitrary cognitive subjectivism on
generate imperatives or absolute truths but analyzes and the part of the researcher but rather a research instrument
clarifies the existing facts in a particular society, location, that allows for a more objective approximation to reality,
time, and historical moment. Furthermore, in his work understanding it as diverse and heterogeneous, and enabling
titled The “Objectivity” of Knowledge in the Social Sciences, a constant comparison of theories (Ideal Types) with the
Weber made it clear that the person endowed with will researched reality (Sell, 2017). Max Weber’s typological
“...weighs and chooses among the values involved according research method has been successfully used in some studies
to his conscience and his conception of the world” (Weber, in the field of sports, notably the works of Guttmann (2007)
2006, p. 17). In other words, Weber (2006) substantially and Overman (2011). Amstel and Marchi Jr. (2021) also
modified the idea of the positional neutrality of the point out that Weber already introduced in Economy and
observer, indicating that it is up to the observer to take a Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology a notion of
position in favor of or against certain values according to sport that would be further developed by Norbert Elias
their conception of the world. However, he emphasized the and Eric Dunning in the work The Quest for Excitement in
need to know the meaning of such observed phenomena. Sport, in which they consider that sports practices promote
Carlos Sell, a Weber lecturer, also pointed out that the the pacification of customs and the control of violence.
author addresses problems of two orders to be considered In addition to ideal types, Weber also concerned himself
by the social sciences: the problem of rationality from the with intentionality in research and, in this regard, sought to
actor’s perspective (known as first-order observation) and systematize action in sociological research (Weber, 2012).
the problem of rationality from the observer’s perspective Thus, action in comprehensive sociology is associated with
(second-order observation), which can be used as a behaviors that: (1) In terms of the subjectively intended
resource of social sciences to explain social reality based meaning of the actor, are related to the behavior of
on the intersubjective world of everyday life (Sell, 2013). others, (2) are codetermined in their course through this
Weber organized his sociological analysis method based relationship, and therefore (3) can be explained intelligibly
on two main tools: (1) Ideal types and (2) types of social in terms of this intended meaning. According to Weber,
action (Sell, 2017). Regarding the first tool, he clarified emotional actions, and feelings, which are indirectly
that there must be a logical function and structure of the relevant to the course of action, are also related in terms of
concepts on which social science relies and develops its subjective meaning to the external world and, especially, to
interpretation of facts, suggesting that human knowledge the actions of others (Weber, 1981).
only captures the relationships between existing things, From such reflections, the construction of the idea of
never in an exhaustive and precise manner (Weber, 1977). social action is structured. It refers to any human action
Within this framework, “sociology does not capture the whose subjective meaning is directed toward the behavior
essence of reality entirely: Sociological explanation can only of other individuals. This concept emerged in a manuscript
capture certain elements of reality, which are conditioned titled Some Categories of Interpretive Sociology, initially
by the culture in which the researcher is immersed” (Sell, published in 1913 (Weber, 1981). It is organized into four
2017, p. 55). Thus, Weber (1977) believed it is necessary distinct types: (1) Social action referring to ends: When
to consider an ideal type: “…by means of the one-sided a person determines a goal to be achieved and devises
accentuation of one or several points of view, and by the strategies to accomplish it; (2) social action referring to
conceptual linking of a great many discrete individual values: It concerns actions in which people act without
phenomena, diffused and scattered, that can be shown to consciously thinking or planning the result, but rather
occur in a greater or lesser number or can be totally absent, with the intention of upholding a value – for example,
and that are arranged according to those one-sidedly ethics – and is related to the preservation of a particular
emphasized viewpoints to form a logically homogenous worldview; (3) affective social action: Characterized by
thought construct” (Weber, 2006, p. 106). In other words, impulsive and momentary actions, without considering the
the ideal type is a mental construction of the researcher consequences. It focuses on satisfying an immediate desire;
that emphasizes aspects they wish to study in the object and (4) traditional social action: It pertains to actions that

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 4 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.0992