Max Weber
Group 2
Max Weber: Introduction
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Born April 21, 1864
In Erfurt in Thuringia, Germany (Suburbs of
Berlin)
Eldest of seven children in upper middle class
family
German Political Economist and Sociologist
One of the founders of modern Sociology
Began his interest in Social Sciences when he
was 13
Brother Alfred became a Sociologist and
Economist
Helped found the German Democratic Party
Max Weber: Education
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In 1882 Weber enrolled in the University of Heidelberg as a law
student
In 1884 transferred back home to study at the University of
Berlin
Studied one term at the University of Goettingen and had short
periods of military training
In 1886 passed the “Referendar” (similar to the bar association
in British and American legal systems) but continued to study
history
In 1889 earned his law doctorate and two years later was
qualified to hold a German professorship
Max Weber: Post Education
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After 1889 took an interest in contemporary social policy
Joined a professional association of German economists
(called the “Verin”) who saw economics solved the many social
problems of the age
In 1890 the “Verin” established a research program to study
influx of foreign farm workers to Eastern Germany as local
laborers migrated to Germany’s rapidly industrializing cities.
Weber was put in charge of this study and wrote a large part of
the results.
The final report was acclaimed as an excellent piece of
empirical research and boosted Weber’s reputation as an
expert in agrarian economics (microeconomics)
Later Life
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1893-Married Marianne Schnitger, who later
became an author and published Weber’s
works after his death
1894-Moved to the University of Freiburg,
appointed professor of Economics
1896-Moved to the University of Heidelburg
1898- Quarreled with his father,
who died two months later, which left Weber
more prone to nervousness
and insomnia.
Reduced his teaching load and spent months
in a sanitarium
1900-Moved to Italy for two years
The Protestant Ethic
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Between 1898-1902 Weber
didn’t publish a single paper
1903-Resigned from
Heidelburg professorship and
became an associate editor for
Archives for Social Science
and Social Welfare
1904-Published The Protestant
Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism, his most famous
and influential work.
During WWI
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During World War I, Weber joined the worker and
soldier council of Heidelburg (1918).
Was also consultant to the German Armistice
Commission at the Treaty of Versailles, and a
member of the committee responsible for drafting the
Weimar Constitution
-He personally advocated for the inclusion of Article 48 in
the Weimar Constitution, which Hitler later used as justification
for his dictatorship
After WWI
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He resumed teaching after WWI, first at Vienna and
later at Munich
In Munich he established a sociology institution in
the University but didn’t personally participate in it.
He was extremely left-wing during this time,
prompting several right-wing protests from students.
Max Weber died of pnuemonia in Munich on June
14, 1920
Max Weber: Works Intro
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Individualist
More cultural in orientation than Marx and Durkheim
Believed the work of social institutions was collective among
individuals under influence
Religious, Political, Economic, and Aesthetic all motivated
action.
Argued that social science should seek causal arguments that
generalize past any particular case, even if it was not possible
to build universal laws of human society.
Stressed the proper object of analysis was social action.
(action results from the head which has subjective motivations)
Max Weber
Objectivity in Social Science
Max Weber: Objectivity in Social
Science
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Only way to escape the subjectivity of researcher is
the use of ideal types
Ideal types must be explained in detail to understand
how the historian would like the word to be
interpreted.
Confuses theory and history
Capitalism and Democracy?
Church and sect?
If a historian does not pay attention to the use of
ideal types without elaboration, his work may be
vaguely felt.
Max Weber: Objectivity in Social
Science
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The danger of ideal types results from a cultural
understanding
Ideal types used in objective explanations of social
action should be concerned with the ideas that
subjectivity motivate action
“Synthesis is an ‘idea’ which we have created
emerges even more markedly when those
fundamental main principles have either only very
imperfectly or not at all been raised to the level of
explicit consciousness or at least have not taken the
form of explicitly elaborated complexes of ideas.”
Max Weber: Objectivity in Social
Science
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Ideal types usually represent what is essential to the expositor
in that period in time.
Ex. Christianity
If a historian portrays the ideas he feels are essential to
Christianity this will represent his “idea” of Christianity
This ideal may differ from the values of other persons say the
early Christians or people with similar beliefs but in different
denominations
This creates an invalid interpretation
There must be a precise distinction between logically
comparative analysis of reality by ideal types in the logical
sense and the value judgment of reality on the basis of ideals.
Max Weber: Discussion Questions
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Weber identified a technique used by historians called an “ideal
type” which represents concepts that need to be explained by
the historian to identify what the historian had in mind. Can you
think of an example where this could be applied to today’s
world and how could it be misinterpreted?
How important do you feel that the explanation of ideal types is
when a new idea or unfamiliar idea is brought forth? Can it be
considered a good or bad thing when new ideas are brought
forth differ from the collective empirical knowledge that exists?
Basic Sociological Terms
Max Weber - 1914
Preliminary Information
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Found at the beginning of Economy and
Society
Attempts to outline the basic tools of
sociology
Provides Weber’s view of sociology as a part
of the social sciences
Definition of Sociology
and Social Action
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"Sociology is a science concerning itself with
the interpretive understanding of social
action and thereby with a causal explanation
of its course and consequences."
Action relates to how an actor attaches
“subjective meaning” to his/her behavior and
it is “social” to the extent that its subjective
meaning takes account of the behavior of
others.
Methodological Foundations
1.
Meaning (two kinds)
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the actual existing meaning of a particular actor or the
average meaning given to a group of actors
the theoretically conceived pure type of subjective
meaning attributed to the actor/group
Distinguishing meaningful action from simple
reaction is difficult, and purely historical actions are
often both active and reactive
Methodological Foundations (cont.)
3.
“All interpretation of meaning strives for clarity and
verifiable accuracy.” Basis for certainty can be either
rational (math/logic) or emotional (empathy/art).
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For methodological reasons, it is preferable to treat all
irrational action as a deviation from an typical rational course
of action
Weber emphasizes that rationality is a method of sociology
and should not be the substance of sociology
Methodological Foundations (cont.)
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“In all the sciences of human action, account must be
taken of processes and phenomena which are devoid
of subjective meaning…”(stimuli, results,
circumstance)
Understanding may be of two kinds:
1. Direct observational (speech, facial expressions)
2. Explanatory understanding (understanding the
motive behind an action)
Methodological Foundations (cont.)
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Understanding involves the interpretive grasp of
meaning in one of the following contexts:
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Historical – intended meaning for concrete action
Sociological mass phenomena – average intended meaning
Ideal types – appropriate to scientific understanding
Often we have only the 'imaginary experiment' - thinking
away particular elements of a chain of motivation and
thereby arriving at a causal judgment.
Methodological Foundations (cont.)
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Motive - a complex of subjective meanings which
seems to account for the conduct in question
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Processes and uniformities not designated as
sociological because they are not
“understandable” are not any less important.
Such phenomena are treated as conditions,
stimuli, or circumstance (furthering or hindering)
Methodological Foundations (cont.)
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Action ... exists only as the behavior of one or more
individual human beings
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Thinking on lower levels does not lead to subjective
understandings.
Social collectivities must be treated as modes of organization
resulting from actions of individuals.
Weber cautions against “organic” school of sociology, which
focuses on the “whole” in which the individual may act. He
believes that this is a valuable first step, but only a first step
of sociological analysis.
Methodological Foundations (cont.)
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Sociological "laws" - or generalizations from typical
probabilities observed
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"are both understandable and definite in the highest degree
insofar as the typically observed point of action can be
understood in terms of the purely rational pursuit of an end.“
It is when the means to such actions are clearly determined
by the context, that it becomes clear that purely
psychological approaches fail.
Weber believed that using any kind of psychology as the
ultimate foundation of the sociological interpretation of action
to be flawed and erroneous
Methodological Foundations (cont.)
11.
Sociology differs from history in that we seek generalized
uniformities and processes to form type concepts, which
differs from the exact data proposed in a particular case by
historians.
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Sociological concepts can contribute towards the causal
explanation of historically and culturally significant
phenomenon.
Sociology can offer greater precision in concepts as a trade
for precision in empirical cases
while we seek a subjective understanding, actors may not be
consciously aware of these motivations themselves. Actors
often act out of impulse or habit.
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Social Action
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Social action is oriented toward others. These can be past,
present, or future, known or unknown.
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Not every kind of action is social action. Overt action is nonsocial if it is oriented solely to the behavior of inanimate objects
(religious activity such as personal meditation or prayer).
3.
Not all contact is social (like a collision of two cyclists) if it is
merely a natural accident. The discussion/confrontation that
follows the crash would be.
4.
Social action is not identical to similar actions across many
people or every action influenced by other people. Putting up
umbrellas due to rain is not a social action. Neither is simple
imitation of others, if it is entirely reactive.
Types of Social Action
Social action may be oriented in four ways:
1.
Instrumentally rational - Determined by expectations as to the
behavior of objects or persons in the environment
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Value rational- Determined by a conscious belief in the value for its
own sake of some ethical , etc. behavior, independent of its
success
3.
Affectual (especially emotional) - Determined by the actors specific
states and feelings
4.
Traditional - Determined by ingrained habit.
Types of Social Action
1.
Strictly traditional behavior is often NOT social, but a matter of
purely automatic reaction.
2.
Purely affectual behavior also stands on the borderline of what
can be "meaningfully" oriented - such as emotional reactions.
3.
Value-rationality differs from affectual in its conscious formulation
of the ultimate values guiding the action. These are people acting
on their convictions, regardless of the outcome.
4.
Action s instrumentally rational when the end, means and
secondary results are all rationally taken into consideration and
weighed.
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It would be very unusual to find any type of social action that was
solely one of these ways, nor is this thought to be an exhaustive
list.
Discussion Questions
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With Weber’s definitions of social action in
mind, create some hypothetical scenarios in
which social action occurs and then classify
the type of social action it exhibits. Also
create scenarios that do not fit Weber’s
definition and explain why they are not
examples of social action.
Discussion Questions
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What examples from Weber’s Basic
Sociological Terms are still relative in
contemporary sociological theory and how?
Did this work influence other famous
sociologists?
How has sociological theory evolved and
how might it be different without the works of
Max Weber?
Max Weber
The Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism
Die protestantiche Ethik und
der “Geist” des kapitalismus
The Basic Idea
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A rise in rationalization, particularly
rationalization of the economy
To Weber, the most rational economic system
is capitalism
Capitalism arose when large numbers of
people worked in the secular world, influenced
by a work ethic derived from Protestantism,
particularly Calvinism. This lead to the
development of enterprises and accumulation
of wealth.
…continued
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Worldly activities, particularly business, were
given positive social and moral meaning,
ethically encouraged, and rationally pursued.
NOT the goal of the religion, but rather a
byproduct, giving rise to capitalism, allowing
for the basic amount of accumulated wealth
for capitalism to evolve.
Paradox: Religious devotion is not typically
associated with worldly success- Why is this
so in Protestantism?
The Protestant Ethic
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Calvinists believed in predestination- their salvation
(or lack thereof) was already determined and what
they did on Earth didn’t change it.
Therefore, they looked for signs of their salvation,
the major one being success in business.
It was also their ethical duty to seek profit, or to be a
good worker
There was no guilt in being a successful capitalist,
extorting workers, because success and failure
economically was decided by God and a marker of
divine favor.
Protestant Ethic
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The new Protestant religions compelled people to
work extremely hard in the secular world, making it
more likely they’d accumulate wealth.
However, these sects forbade using this wealth for
materialism, luxury goods, etc., so the majority of this
capital was re-invested into enterprise to be even
more successful.
All these beliefs about economic success add up to
the Protestant Ethic
Roots of the Protestant Ethic
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The Reformation- There was no longer solely
salvation in the church.
New Protestant religions that didn’t look to the
church to earn or assure salvation, but rather that it
was already pre-ordained.
However, the average Protestant could not easily
adjust to this new view, only “religious geniuses” like
Martin Luther could accept this without question.
Protestants began to look for other signs or divine
signals that they were among the saved.
Spirit of Capitalism
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Essentially the ideas and habits that favor the
rational pursuit of economic gain.
-This is the attitude of what Weber calls the
“heroic enteprenuers”.
Not motivated by greed for profit, as had been the
case for the rest of history, but by an ethical system
that encouraged hard work and economic success.
Being successful and working hard was highly moral,
and one’s moral duty.
Spirit of Capitalism
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Systematical, rational pursuit of profit
combined with frugality, punctuality, fairness,
and the earning of money itself as a
legitimate goal.
This was not compatible with other religions,
particularly Catholicism, allowing capitalism
to first and more successfully evolve in
Protestant countries.
Capitalism
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Capitalism continued to be successful as the western
world continued to become more and more secular.
The religious underpinnings of capitalism’s success
disappeared from society.
However, the Protestant ethic was largely responsible
for what Weber terms the “disenchantment of the
Western world”, becoming an industrialized society free
from “magic”.
This thesis is quite a critique of Marx by stating that
religion fostered capitalism, not that the base for
capitalism was actually economic.
Discussion Questions
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Do you think Weber’s thesis is valid? Did
capitalism come from this Protestant ethic, or
could there be other explanations (Marx,
Polanyi)? Why or why not?
How much of a role does religion play in the
economy in today’s modern society? How
much does modern society affect religion?