MAX WEBER AND ERNEST BERNEA UNIVERSAL AND LOCAL VISIONS OF THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION OF SOCIETY

• Main Author: MĂDĂLINA MĂNDIŢĂ
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Romanian Academy 2015-05-01
• Series: Revista Română de Sociologie
• Online Access: http://revista.acadsudest.ro/pdf-uri/nr.1-2-2015/06-Madalina.pdf

In this study we analyze two ways of understanding the role and importance of the spiritual dimension of social reality: first from a universal point of view with the sociology of Max Weber concerning the research of the religious phenomenon, and secondly from a local point of view, aided by the contributions of Eugeniu Sperantia, Petre Andrei and especially Ernest Bernea relative to the basic elements necessary to understand society. Both in comprehensive sociology and in Romanian interwar sociology we find the necessity of a complex research of social reality, in order to avoid the perils represented by the materialistic or idealistic views of sociology. If Weber rejects these two limited positions by making efforts to understand social actions, and thus coming to be labeled a causalist, Bernea also advocates for a sociology that reaches a synthesis of society, considering himself to be an adherent of integral realism. A common element of these two ways of conceiving and applying sociology (that of Weber – which has demonstrated its universal capability, and that developed by Bernea – which has proved its local capability) is the recognition of the importance of the spiritual dimension and the imperative of multiple conditionality in the scientific understanding of social realities. In this article we are concerned with the way and the incentive of these two sociologists for an interpretative knowledge of society and for a whole realistic knowledge of social reality