The nature, structure and functions of the ideal type; Formulation of Weber's post-positive approach to conceptualization

Historical individual, concepts of natural sciences, everyday collective concepts, ideal type, value relation





Classics and contemporaries of sociology and social thought, in three approaches of positive, anti-positive and post-positive, have discussed and pondered the logic and structure of concepts in social sciences around these questions: What are the similarities and differences between the concepts of social sciences and the concepts of natural sciences in terms of structure, purpose and function? What are the types of social science concepts? Are the concepts of the social sciences the general concepts of the natural sciences or the individual concepts of historians? Are social science concepts value-laden or value-free? In answer to these questions, the present paper, by examining the Kantian and neo-Kantian foundations of Weber's post-positive theory, formulates the nature, structure, and conceptualization functions of the ideal type into eight interrelated propositions. This article argues negatively that the ideal type is distinct from Rickert's individual concepts, the general concepts of the natural-mathematical sciences, the classifying concepts, and the collective concepts derived from everyday life; He then argues positively that the ideal type is value-laden and of the type of formative concepts. The ideal type is an essential tool for the possibility of scientific study of social reality, understanding the meaning of action, causal analysis of social phenomena, providing and increasing conceptual accuracy, hypothesis construction guide, Reality assessment, policy evaluation and comparative study.