Weber, Max (1864—1920)
German sociologist. One of the most important and influential scholars of the twentieth century, considered by many to be one of the founders of the discipline of sociology (along with Durkheim, Émile and intensity). His work broke new ground by focusing on the individual as a meaning-seeking entity, rather than as a member of an already existing, religiously bound community. Weber rejected the idea that religious values could explain individual and social behaviour, and argued against the idea that investigating contemporary social life should be a search for absolute truths (such as Adam Smith’s ‘law of the market’). He also rejected the then (and in some places still) current idea that society can be understood as a quasi-organic whole or system and that individuals within it are merely so many ‘socialized’ component parts. Sociology’s primary aim, Weber argued, should be to explain the historical individual. Weber defines sociology as an interpretive science because it seeks to understand the subjective meaning people attach to their behaviour (‘social action’) through rational and empathic modes of understanding. According to Weber there are four main types of meaningful social action: (1) means-end rational; (2) value-rational; (3) affectual; and (4) traditional. Each type has its own ideal-type of motivation---e.g. means—end rational action is motivated by a rational consideration of all options and consequences and balancing up of the relative importance of ends. Weber argues that these four modes of social action are present in all types of civilization, throughout history. ‘Modern’ humans are no more and no less rational than so-called ‘primitive’ peoples in this regard. However, at certain moments in time one or other of these four types of social action may become dominant. By using these ideal types of action as starting points, the sociologist can imagine themselves ‘into’ the community they are studying and thus arrive at an understanding of it. In order to achieve this, researchers have to set aside their own values and beliefs and approach their subject matter in an objective or ‘value-neutral’ manner. The concept of the ideal type is one of Weber’s most important theoretical inventions and it grounds his entire sociology. The ideal type is a logical construct born of empirical observation and pattern recognition. The ideal type does not portray the subjective meaning of a particular individual or that of all individuals. Rather, it points to a constellation of subjective meanings typically associated with certain kinds of easily recognizable social types and is used to make broad-brush general comparisons. Undoubtedly his most important and most widely known example of an ideal type is that of the Protestant worker in his book Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus (1904), translated as The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1930). Weber was fascinated by the way Protestants were able to transform the acquisition of personal wealth, once considered a sin, into evidence of their salvation (this transformation is at the centre of Jameson, Fredric’s concept of the vanishing mediator, which he draws from Weber). Although the Protestant is the ideal type Weber is best known for creating, it is not his best-known ideal type. That honour belongs to the ‘bureaucrat’, but this ideal type is now so widely known and used that it has passed into everyday usage and Weber’s authorship of it is all but forgotten. It is one of several powerful concepts that appear in Weber’s multi-volume but ultimately incomplete project entitled Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Grundriss der verstehenden Soziologie (1921), translated as Economy and Society (1978), which was written in the last decade of his life. It fell to Weber’s wife to pull together the mammoth manuscript of more than a thousand pages and publish it following his death. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, for a work of such length, its range of interests and concerns is breathtaking. Weber examines issues to do with the state, the nation, class, ethnicity, family, and clans, as well as cities, religions, and economies. His aim is to systematize knowledge of all civilizations across history to enable both a comparative historical analysis and an interpretive sociology. The principle undercurrent of Economy and Society is an analytic interest in the question of political legitimacy or authority, which may usefully be compared with Gramsci, Antonio’s concept of hegemony. Weber argued that neither force nor material interest alone is sufficient to produce a stable and enduring regime. The ruled, he argued, must believe, to however small a degree, in the legitimacy of the ruler’s right to rule or else the regime will crumble. Their willingness to obey that ruler arises out of this belief, which, according to Weber, follows three distinct motivations: (1) rational—legal; (2) traditional; and (3) charismatic. The rational—legal model is dominant in what is known as, following Weber, bureaucratic societies---as Weber argued, bureaucracies function best to the degree they are dehumanized, i.e. stripped of the emotional elements normally associated with human behaviour. By contrast, the charismatic model amplifies the emotional elements and uses them to attach subjects to a particular leader who is thought to possess extraordinary powers. Large sections of Economy and Society are devoted to a comparative analysis of world religions, or what Weber himself called Religionssoziologie. A selection of this work was translated into English as The Sociology of Religion (1963), more than a decade before the complete edition of Economy and Society became available in translation. It is widely regarded as a foundational text in the sub-discipline of the sociology of religion. Weber starts with the assumption that belief in the supernatural is universal, that every society throughout history has posited some kind of higher being that exists beyond earthly realms, and asks how organized religions evolve out of these ‘primitive’ beliefs. Further Reading: R. Bendix Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait (1962). S. Kalberg The Social Thought of Max Weber (2016).