个体行动与现代生活的意义——马克斯·韦伯“规范意识”概念的当代解读

Individual Action and the Meaning of Modern Life——Contemporary Interpretation of Max Weber's Concept of“Normative Consciousness”

“有意义的人类行动和生活何以可能”是韦伯价值思想的核心问题,也是其社会科学方法论研究的理论旨趣。区别于自然科学对客观规律的描述性研究,韦伯认为社会科学倾向于对个体价值和主观意义的规范性考察。为避免陷入主观主义和相对主义的泥淖,他致力于在充斥着主观因素的社会科学领域探究知识的客观性。他认为,理想类型是其解决这一问题的有效方案,也是其探究“构成有意义的个体行动之因素”与“资本主义精神之起源”的方法论内核。从个体行动的角度看,人们遵照“人格”的要求引导和约束行为;从社会转型的角度看,“资本主义精神”促进现代社会秩序的生成。理想类型的效用机制是行动个体规范意识的生成,保持规范意识的觉醒和存续是社会秩序和行动意义的保证。

"How can meaningful human action and life be possible" is the core issue of Weber’s value thought and the theoretical purport of his social science methodology research.Different from the descriptive study of objective law in natural science,Weber argues that social science tends to make normative investigation on individual values and subjective meanings.In order to avoid falling into the mire of subjectivism and relativism,he devotes himself to exploring the objectivity of knowledge in the field of social science which is full of subjective factors.Ideal type is not only an effective solution to this problem,but also the core methodology of exploring "the factors constituting meaningful individual action" and "the origin of capitalist spirit".From the perspective of individual action,people follow the requirements of "personality" to guide and restrict their behavior;from the perspective of social transformation,"capitalist spirit" promotes the generation of modern social order.The utility mechanism of the ideal type is the generation of the action individual’s normative consciousness. Keeping the awareness and existence of the normative consciousness is the guarantee of social order and meaningful life.