ABSTRACT
Max Weber, according to one of the prominent social theorists, has been described as ‘the greatest of the sociologists’. This remark seems justified when we look at the profound impact that Weber’s contributions had on sociological theory and methodology. Weber not only redefined the subject matter of sociology but also laid the foundations of the social action approach or interpretive approach in social sciences. Just as in geographical terms, a ridgeline or a watershed separates two drainage basins, similarly, in sociology too, we find Weber and his ideas acting as a watershed during the evolution of sociological thought, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. So, it would not be wrong to say that in sociological theory ‘after Weber, it’s only Weber’. Some of the most important concepts of Weber which enriched sociological vocabulary are social action, ideal type, value neutrality, causal pluralism and verstehen.
