The Philosopher
Max Weber
The face
The background
- Nationality:
- German
- Schools:
- Continental philosophy, Antipositivism, Liberalism
- Branchs:
- Sociology, History, Jurist, Political economy, Economic sociology, Political sociology, Sociology of religion, Sociology of law
- Period:
- Modern
The synopsis
Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (21 April 1864 – 14 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economist who is considered one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sciences. His ideas continue to influence social theory and research. Born in Erfurt in 1864, Weber studied law and history in Berlin, Göttingen, and Heidelberg. After earning his doctorate in law in 1889 and habilitation in 1891, he taught in Berlin, Freiburg, and Heidelberg. He married his cousin Marianne Schnitger two years later. In 1897, he had a breakdown after his father died following an argument. Weber ceased teaching and travelled until the early 1900s. He recovered and wrote *The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism*. During the First World War, he initially supported Germany's war effort but became critical of it and supported democratisation. He also gave the lectures "Science as a Vocation" and "Politics as a Vocation". After the war, Weber co-founded the German Democratic Party, unsuccessfully ran for office, and advised the drafting of the Weimar Constitution. Meanwhile, he resumed teaching in Vienna and Munich. He died of pneumonia in 1920 at the age of 56, possibly as a result of the post-war Spanish flu pandemic. A book, *Economy and Society*, was left unfinished. One of Weber's main intellectual concerns was understanding the processes of rationalisation and disenchantment. He formulated a thesis arguing that such processes were associated with the rise of capitalism and modernity. Weber also argued that the Protestant work ethic influenced the creation of capitalism in *The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism*. It was followed by *The Economic Ethics of the World Religions*, where he examined the religions of China, India, and ancient Judaism. In terms of government, Weber argued that states were defined by their monopoly on violence and categorised social authority into three distinct forms: charismatic, traditional, and rational-legal. He was also a key proponent of methodological antipositivism, arguing for the study of social action through interpretive rather than purely empiricist methods. Weber made a variety of other contributions to economic sociology, political sociology, and the sociology of religion. After his death, the rise of Weberian scholarship was slowed by the Weimar Republic's political instability and the rise of Nazi Germany. In the post-war era, organised scholarship began to appear, led by Talcott Parsons. Other American and British scholars were also involved in its development. Over the course of the twentieth century, Weber's reputation grew as translations of his works became widely available and scholars increasingly engaged with his life and ideas. As a result of these works, he began to be regarded as a founding father of sociology, alongside Karl Marx and Émile Durkheim, and one of the central figures in the development of the social sciences more generally.
The works
The History of Commercial Partnerships in the Middle Ages, Based on Southern European Documents
Roman Agrarian History and Its Significance for Public and Private Law
Condition of Farm Labour in Eastern Germany
The Stock Exchange
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
The Economic Ethics of the World Religions
The Religion of China
The Religion of India
Science as a Vocation
Politics as a Vocation
Ancient Judaism
Economy and Society
General Economic History
The quotes
Power is the chance to impose your will within a social context, even when opposed and regardless of the integrity of that chance.
The primary task of a useful teacher is to teach his students to recognize 'inconvenient' facts - I mean facts that are inconvenient for their party opinions.
Certainly all historical experience confirms the truth - that man would not have attained the possible unless time and again he had reached out for the impossible.
Precision, speed, unambiguity, knowledge of files, continuity, discretion, unity, strict subordination, reduction of friction and of material and personal costs - these are raised to the optimum point in the strictly bureaucratic administration.
All the analysis of infinite reality which the finite human mind can conduct rests on the tacit assumption that only a finite portion of this reality constitutes the object of scientific investigation, and that only it is 'important' in the sense of being 'worthy of being known.'
The modern view of criminal justice, broadly, is that public concern with morality or expediency decrees expiation for the violation of a norm; this concern finds expression in the infliction of punishment on the evil doer by agents of the state, the evil doer, however, enjoying the protection of a regular procedure.
Either one lives 'for' politics or one lives 'off' politics.
All research in the cultural sciences in an age of specialization, once it is oriented towards a given subject matter through particular settings of problems and has established its methodological principles, will consider the analysis of the data as an end in itself.
The so-called 'materialistic conception of history,' with the crude elements of genius of the early form which appeared, for instance, in the 'Communist Manifesto,' still prevails only in the minds of laymen and dilettantes.
Only he has the calling for politics who is sure that he shall not crumble when the world from his point of view is too stupid or too base for what he wants to offer.
One can say that three pre-eminent qualities are decisive for the politician: passion, a feeling of responsibility, and a sense of proportion.
No sociologist should think himself too good, even in his old age, to make tens of thousands of quite trivial computations in his head and perhaps for months at a time.
The career of politics grants a feeling of power. The knowledge of influencing men, of participating in power over them, and above all, the feeling of holding in one's hands a nerve fiber of historically important events can elevate the professional politician above everyday routine even when he is placed in formally modest positions.
Within the confines of the lecture hall, no other virtue exists but plain intellectual integrity.
Homelessness is the fundamental idea of salvation in Jainism. It means the breaking off of all earthly relations, and therefore, above all, indifference to general impressions and avoidance of all worldly motives, the ceasing to act, to hope, to desire.
All knowledge of cultural reality, as may be seen, is always knowledge from particular points of view.
Politics means striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state.
Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards.
Social economic problems do not exist everywhere that an economic event plays a role as cause or effect - since problems arise only where the significance of those factors is problematical and can be precisely determined only through the application of methods of social-economics.
One cannot prescribe to anyone whether he should follow an ethic of absolute ends or an ethic of responsibility.
Causal analysis provides absolutely no value judgment, and a value judgment is absolutely not a causal explanation.
The ethic of conviction and the ethic of responsibility are not opposites. They are complementary to one another.
It is not true that good can only follow from good and evil only from evil, but that often the opposite is true.
Every type of purely direct concrete description bears the mark of artistic portrayal.
A highly developed stock exchange cannot be a club for the cult of ethics.
The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world.
The fully developed bureaucratic apparatus compares with other organisations exactly as does the machine with the non-mechanical modes of production.
'Culture' is a finite segment of the meaningless infinity of the world process, a segment on which human beings confer meaning and significance.
Only by strict specialization can the scientific worker become fully conscious, for once and perhaps never again in his lifetime, that he has achieved something that will endure. A really definitive and good accomplishment is today always a specialized act.
Whenever known and sufficient causes are available, it is anti-scientific to discard them in favour of a hypothesis that can never be verified.
Laws are important and valuable in the exact natural sciences, in the measure that those sciences are universally valid.
Only he has the calling for politics who is sure that he will not crumble when the world from his point of view is too stupid or base for what he wants to offer. Only he who in the face of all this can say In spite of all! has the calling for politics.
It is not astonishing that there are many journalists who have become human failures and worthless men. Rather, it is astonishing that, despite all this, this very stratum includes such a great number of valuable and quite genuine men, a fact that outsiders would not so easily guess.