Hist 300: Max Weber
born April 21, 1864, Erfurt, Prussia
died June 14, 1920, Munich, Germany
I. Life
family
Alfred Weber
University of Heidelberg
University of Berlin
Marianne Schnitger
Verein für Socialpolitik (Union for Social Policy)
The Freiburg address (1895)
Junker
mental breakdown (1897-1903)
World War I
Versailles peace conference
Weimar Constitution
II. The Protestant Ethic
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-5; Eng. trans. 1930)
John Calvin
asceticism
Benjamin Franklin
rationalisation
criticisms
R. H. Tawney’s Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1926)
“work ethic”
III. Sociology of Religion
The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism (translation - 1951)
the Warring States Period.
The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Budhism (translation - 1958)
caste
Brahmins
Ancient Judaism (orginal 1917-1920, translation - 1952)
“Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions” (1916)
IV. Sociology of Politics
“Politics as a Vocation” (1918)
Economy and Society (1922)
defintion of the state
three pure types of political leadership
charismatic domination
traditional domination
legal domination
rationalisation and bureaucratisation
"Weberian civil service"
Social Darwinism
alientation
a three-component theory of stratification,
social class, status class, party class
V. Sociological Methodology
“value-free” social science
ideal type
VI. Lasting Influence
Carl Schmitt (1888-1985)