'Ideal Types of Max Weber are mental constructs, they do not correspond to the reality. Give your views. (UPSC CSE Mains 2020 - Sociology, Paper 1)
- Weber used ideal type in a specific sense. To him, ideal type is a mental construct, like a model, for the scrutiny and systematic characterisation of a concrete situation. Indeed, he used ideal type as a methodological tool to understand and analyse social reality.
- Max Weber was particularly concerned with the problem of objectivity in social sciences. Hence he used ideal type as a methodological tool that looks at reality objectively. It scrutinises, classifies, systematises and defines social reality without subjective bias. The ideal type has nothing to do with values. Its function, as a research tool, is for classification and comparison.
Characteristics of Ideal Types
1) They do not represent total reality , exhibit partial conception of the whole.
2) They are not general or average type. They are formulated on the basis of certain essential traits
3) They are neither a description of any definite concept of reality nor a hypothesis.
4) They are never correct or incorrect.
- Social reality is very complex in itself so in order to understand it, one has to study every aspect separately by isolating and investigating thoroughly. So by constructing ideal type for each and every aspect general preposition can be reached.
- For instance in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber analyses the characteristics of the ‘Calvinist Ethic’. These characteristics are taken from various historical writings and involve those components of Calvinist doctrines which Weber identifies as of particular importance in relation to the formation of the capitalist spirit. Ideal types are thus a selection of certain elements, certain traits or characteristics which are distinctive and relevant to the study undertaken. However, one thing which should be kept in mind here is that though ideal types are constructed from facts existing in reality, they do not represent or describe the total reality, they are of pure types in a logical sense. According to Weber ‘in its conceptual purity, this ideal mental construct cannot be found empirically anywhere in reality’. This then is the way in which ideal types are constructed. To facilitate our understanding later in this unit we will take up those ideal type concepts which have been used by Weber.
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