On National Socialism by Talcott Parsons

Author:Talcott Parsons [Parsons, Talcott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Communism; Post-Communism & Socialism, Political Ideologies, Social Science, Political Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781351502009
Google: SkL6zAEACAAJ
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2017-09-29T11:46:37+00:00

D. Moral Responsibility in Politics

In closing, a few brief remarks may be made about Weber’s approach to the problems of political action. Weber himself would not have considered the question of the ultimate values to be embodied in a policy to lie within the province of science. There are, however, two sets of considerations which fall legitimately within the field of social science as such.

The first touches the question of the possibility of the accomplishment of decisive results by political action. Today a very considerable influence is exerted over men’s minds by “deterministic” theories of history according to which there is an inevitable process of unfolding of the historic pattern, and what men may or may not “do about it” by their decision and character and effort, cannot in the nature of the case be important.26 Weber’s position, as he developed it both in his empirical studies and in his methodological work, is sharply opposed to this view. No one was more empirically realistic than he, no one better realized the limitations placed upon action by the conditions of the situation which are beyond the actor’s control. But at the same time, to him, human choice and decision were fundamental factors in the determination of events. Above all, in many situations, there is a relatively delicate balance between the forces working in radically opposed directions, so that the difference made by a war, a political movement, or even the influence of a single man may be of very far-reaching consequences in determining which of the different potentialities of the situation is realized. It is not that such a factor “creates” the result. It is rather that, in addition to the other forces working in that direction, it is sufficient to throw the total balance in favor of the one possible outcome rather than the other.

Weber’s general view of the social process then, was such as to fit in with a high sense of responsibility. Very great consequences for what are, in terms of the values a man happens to adhere to, good or evil, may well hang on his particular action. He repudiates both what may be called the optimistic and the pessimistic versions of “determinism.” For these, in the former case there is no need to worry or take responsibility, in the latter there is no sense in it, since the worst is bound to happen no matter what one does. It is relevant to this problem that, to Weber, social systems were notably unstable and inherently involved in tension and conflict. His “activism” was by no means based on an optimistic bias which saw the desired outcome as easy and simple.

On the background of this general position, Weber developed a theory of two possible, radically opposed types of attitude toward action, that is toward the problems of moral responsibility. These he called Gesinnungsethik, the “ethic of absolute value” and Verantwortungsethik, the “ethic of responsibility.”27 By the former he meant the type of attitude according to which a given

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