Max Weber now presents his own

classification of the four ideal types of social action. The first one is called
[FOREIGN]
which can be translated as goal-rational or means, ends, rational. This is social
action that is motivated by
the desire to reach in the most efficient way, an end result that can also be
defended with rational arguments. In a calculating systematic way, the means
are selected that will lead to that goal. However much you would
like to achieve that goal, you should at all times keep
your emotions under control because they may lead you away
from where you want to go. Always keep a cool head. That could be the motto of
the engineer who designs a bridge, or the general at the eve of
a battle studying his maps. The second ideal typical category
consists of social action that seems to be irrational
because it is directed at a value that can not be
motivated in rational terms. This is what labor calls [FOREIGN] or value-rational
social action. In order to achieve that value,
the individual may be just as rational as the personal displaying
goal rational social action. Most people are not saints or
military heroes. And for them,
it may be hard to understand. But if you sincerely strive for
personal salvation, then you might choose the aesthetic
lifestyle of the hermit. Or if you really want to defend your
military honor, you may rationally choose a social action that inescapably
will result in you losing your life. Those actions can be
understood in rational terms. But only if you accept, without a rational argument,
the value that they are oriented at. Number three is called
affective social action, and it is motivated by the emotional
state of the actor. When somebody is overcome with anger, he may react in a certain
way
that maybe he regrets afterwards. But, that was the only
possibility at that very moment. Weber mentions a furious parent that
beats a child purely out of anger. Maybe a better example that
you will not fined in Weber is a soccer player biting
a member of the opposite team. He knows very well that he
will be severely punished, that his team will receive bad
publicity plus a financial penalty. That his social action may dramatically
influence their position
in the competition. And still, he cannot stop
himself from sinking his teeth in the neck of his fellow soccer player. That is
affective social
action driven by emotion. And then,
there is traditional social action. When you ask somebody why they do
the things the way they do them? The answer will be,
that's the way we do this. In our community,
we always did it this way. Our ancestors always did it this way. We have been
raised to do it this way. Again, an example that you will not find
in Weber but that I think helps you to understand what it means,
is eating with a fork and a knife. There may be hygienic advantages and
rational reasons, but you can experience the weight of tradition if you just try
to do it, to eat your evening dinner. Just for once, as an experiment,
with your bare hand. Those are the four ideal
types of rational action. And one more time,
those categories are ideal types, so you will never encounter them in the real
world out there, in their pure state. What you will find is a mixture, or
at least a slightly contaminated case. The four types in their pristine form
only exist in the world of ideas. But, we can observe all kinds of
phenomena that more or less approached, more or less come close to the types
that Weber has constructed. Now, Max Weber is convinced
that the first type, goal-rationality, is gaining
territory in modernity. More and more,
social action in modern Western societies can be characterized
as goal-rational. And we also witness the gradual
Marginalization of value-rational, affective and traditional social action. Those
types can still be found. But, you have to search for
them in the periphery. They are pushed into the margin. Now, the kernel of Weber's
sociological
theory of modernity boils down to this. In modern Western societies, the realm of
goal-rational social action is constantly increasing at the expense of the realms
of
the other three types of social action. All the other aspects of modernity
that we will discuss from here, are nothing but the consequences
of this central development.