“Sense” and “Intention” in Max Weber's Theory of Social Action

Abstract

Ambiguities in Weber's theory of social action have been compounded in translation into English. American commentators have generally given a psychological twist to Weber's concepts of “intended sense” and “understanding,” in terms of an “imputation of motive.” Weber, on the other hand, distinguishes between the intended sense of an action and the actor's motivation. As a sociologist, he is interested, not in the imputation of motive to the individual actor, but in understanding social action in its “context of sense” in relation to “typical” or “cross‐sectional” usages based on “consensus,” that is, in its “cultural significance”.