The Nature of Sociological Knowledge: Considerations regarding Weber's Conception

• Published in: Année sociologique 2006-01, Vol.56 (2), p.369-388
• Main Author: Cuin, Charles-Henry
• Format: Article
• Language: fre
• Subjects: Knowledge; Sociological Research
• ISSN: 0066-2399

The abstraction step is central in the Weberian methodology, insofar as this author affirms, on the one hand, that the sociological object (like any scientific object) is never "given" to the researcher & must be built it starting from an empirical material which is essentially chaotic & meaningless and, on the other hand, that this object is not another thing than collective significances which must be apprehended through the significances they have for the observer himself, for the sociologist. Here, one put two questions: that of the nature of the sociological object such as it arises from Weberian methodology, & that of the nature of the knowledge this same methodology produces about this object. At last, through an example chosen in contemporary sociological literature, one shows misinterpretations to which the negligence of these characteristics may lead. Adapted from the source document.