ABSTRACT
Weber defines the object of sociology thus: ‘Sociology…is a science concerning itself with the interpretative understanding of social action and thereby with a causal explanation of its course and consequences.’ [E&S, vol. I, p. 4]
The nature of social action is derived from the relation of the subject to its own meanings and intentions. The subject’s relations to its own actions provide the means of defining what sociology is: ‘action’ exists ‘when and in so far as the acting individual attaches a subjective meaning to behaviour’; social action exists when the meaning of the subject ‘takes account of [the] behaviour of others’ and is other-oriented in form. [E&S, vol. I, p. 4] Social action thus depends on the individual subject’s subjective representation of and relation to his own behaviour, if it is conscious, ‘meaningful’ and other-regarding it is social.
