Talk:Social actions

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It would appear that there are some sources which confuse rational and instrumental actions, so be careful. Some citations (I don't have any atm) would be useful here.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 22:22, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Confusion on value rationality

Following up on Piotr's comments: I think the current state of the article reflects confusion about the distinction between instrumental and value rational action. In short-- it seems like aspects of both the 'rational action' and instrumental action sections refer to aspects of instrumental action. The term 'value rational' can be thought of action made according to principle, rather than action made to instrumentally attain some end. Thus a person might go out of their way to return a library book that they found on the street purely because doing so is consistent with their values. It would likely be helpful to read Weber's 1968 discussion of value rational again. --Htw3 04:40, 23 October 2007 (UTC)