Discuss the importance of interpretative understanding of social phenomena and explain its limitations. (UPSC CSE Mains 2019 - Sociology, Paper 1)
Not all sociologists agree that science is the only way—or even the best way—to study human society. This is because, unlike planets or other elements of the natural world, humans do not simply move around as objects in ways that can be measured. Even more important, people are active creatures who attach meaning to their behavior, meaning that cannot be directly observed. Therefore, sociologists have developed a second research orientation, known as interpretive sociology, the study of society that focuses on the meanings people attach to their social world. Max Weber, the pioneer of this framework, argued that the proper focus of sociology is interpretation, or understanding the meaning that people create in their everyday lives.
Interpretive sociology does not reject science completely, but it does change the focus of research. Interpretive sociology differs from positivist sociology in four ways.
- First, positivist sociology focuses on actions—on what people do—because that is what we can observe directly. Interpretive sociology, by contrast, focuses on people’s understanding of their actions and their surroundings.
- Second, positivist sociology claims that objective reality exists “out there,” but interpretive sociology counters that reality is subjective, constructed by people in the course of their everyday lives.
- Third, positivist sociology tends to favor quantitative data—numerical measurements of people’s behavior—while interpretive sociology favors qualitative data, or researchers’ perceptions of how people understand their world.
- Fourth, the positivist orientation is best suited to research in a laboratory, where investigators conducting an experiment stand back and take careful measurements. On the other hand, the interpretive orientation claims that we learn more by interacting with people, focusing on subjective meaning, and learning how they make sense of their everyday lives. As the chapter will explain, this type of research often uses personal interviews or fieldwork and is best carried out in a natural or everyday setting.
Max Weber believed the key to interpretive sociology lay in Verstehen, the German word for “understanding.” The interpretive sociologist does not just observe what people do but also tries to understand why they do it. The thoughts and feelings of subjects, which scientists tend to dismiss because they are difficult to measure, are the focus of the interpretive sociologist’s attention.
Weber pointed out that we cannot analyze our social behavior by the same type of objective criteria we use to measure weight or temperature. To fully comprehend behavior, we must learn the subjective meanings people attach to their actions—how they themselves view and explain their behavior. For example, suppose that a sociologist was studying the social ranking of individuals in a fraternity. Weber would expect the researcher to employ verstehen to determine the significance of the fraternity’s social hierarchy for its members. The researcher might examine the effects of athleticism or grades or social skills or seniority on standing within the fraternity. He or she would seek to learn how the fraternity members relate to other members of higher or lower status. While investigating these questions, the researcher would take into account people’s emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes.
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