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Max Weber

Max Weber Biography

Sociologist

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“It is true that we regard as objectively valuable those innermost elements of the "personalIty," those highest and most ultimate value-Judgments which determine our conduct and give meaning and significance to our life. We can indeed espouse these values only when they appear to us as valid, as derived from our highest values and when they are developed in the struggle against the difficulties which life presents. Certainly, the dignity of the "personality" lies in the fact that for it there exIst values about which It organizes its life; - even 1£ these values are m certain cases concentrated exclusively WIthin the sphere of the person's "individuality," then "self-realization" in those interests for which it claims validIty as values, is the idea wIth respect to which its whole existence is oriented.”

IndividualityObjectivity
Book:The methodology of the social sciences
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“The ability to free oneself from the common tradition, a sort of liberal enlightenment, seems likely to be the most suitable basis for such a business man’s success. And today that is generally precisely the case. Any relationship between religious beliefs and conduct is generally absent, and where any exists, at least in Germany, it tends to be of the negative sort. The people filled with the spirit of capitalism today tend to be indifferent, if not hostile, to the Church. The thought of the pious boredom of paradise has little attraction for their active natures; religion appears to them as a means of drawing people away from labor in this world. If you ask them what is the meaning of their restless activity, why they are never satisfied with what they have, thus appearing so senseless to any purely worldly view of life, they would perhaps give the answer, if they know any at all: “to provide for my children and grandchildren.” But more often and, since that motive is not peculiar to them, but was just as effective for the traditionalist, more correctly, simply: that business with its continuous work has become a necessary part of their lives. That is in fact the only possible motivation, but it at the same time expresses what is, seen from the viewpoint of personal happiness, so irrational about this sort of life, where a man exists for the sake of his business, instead of the reverse.”

WorkCapitalismLiberalismMaterialismCommerce
Book:The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism
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“This obstacle which should be relentlessly combatted as a sign of narrow-minded party fanaticism and backward political culture, is reinforced for a journal like ours through the fact that in social sciences the stimulus to the posing of scientific problems is in actuality always given by practical "questions" Hence the very recognition of the existence of a scientific problem coincides personally, with the possession of specially oriented motives and values A Joumal which has come into existence under the Influence of a general interest in a concrete problem, will always include among its contributors persons who are personally Interested In these problems because certain concrete situations seem to be incompatible with, or seem to threaten. the realization of certain ideal values In which they belIeve. A bond of similar ideals will hold this circle of contrIbutors together and it will be the basis of a further recruitment. This in turn will tend to give the Journal, at least in its treatment of questions of practical social policy, a certain "character" which of course inevitably accompanies every collaboration of vigorously sensitive persons whose evaluative standpoint regarding the problems cannot be entirely expressed even In purely theoretical analysis; in the criticIsm of practIcal recommendations and measures it quite legitimately finds expression under the particular conditions above discussed.”

ValueSocial SciencePracticality
Book:The Theory of Social and Economic Organization
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“In fact, the summum bonum of his ethic, the earning of more and more money, combined with the strict avoidance of all spontaneous enjoyment of life, is above all completely devoid of any eudaemonistic, not to say hedonistic, admixture. It is thought of so purely as an end in itself, that from the point of view of the happiness of, or utility to, the single individual, it appears entirely transcendental and absolutely irrational. Man is dominated by the making of money, by acquisition as the ultimate purpose of his life. Economic acquisition is no longer subordinated to man as the means for the satisfaction of his material needs. This reversal of what we should call the natural relationship, so irrational from a naive point of view, is evidently as definitely a leading principle of capitalism as it is foreign to all peoples not under capitalistic influence.”

MoneyMoney Not Happiness
Book:The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism
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“The capacity for the accomplishment of religious virtuosos the "intellectual sacrifice" is the decisive characteristic of the positively religious man. That this is so is shown by the fact that in spite of (or rather in consequence) of theology (which unveils it) the tension between the value-spheres of "science" and the sphere of "the holy" is unbridgeable.”

MenFactsValuesReligiousSacrificeHolyIntellectualConsequenceCapacityTheologyAccomplishmentTensionCharacteristicsSpiteSpheresPositively
Book:From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology
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“A fully developed bureaucratic mechanism stands in the same relationship to other forms as does the machine to the non-mechanical production of goods. Precision, speed, clarity, documentary ability, continuity, discretion, unity, rigid subordination, reduction of friction and material and personal expenses are unique to bureaucratic organization.”

DoeFormAbilityMaterialsUniqueMachinesOrganizationUnityProductionsSpeedClarityGoodsExpensesMechanismDocumentariesContinuityDiscretionReductionPrecisionFrictionSubordination
Author:Max Weber
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“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.”

MenImportantFeelingsHandsCareersInfluenceEventsPositionPoliticianEverydayGrantsNervesRoutineModestParticipatingFiberImportant EventsEveryday Routine
Book:From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology
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“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.”

EndsMatterProblemAgeGivenPrinciplesSubjectsParticularResearchSettingSettingsDataAnalysisSubject MatterSpecialization
Book:On the Methodology of the Social Sciences
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“It is true that the path of human destiny cannot but appal him who surveys a section of it. But he will do well to keep his small personal commentarie to himself, as one does at the sight of the sea or of majestic mountains, unless he knows himself to be called and gifted to give them expression in artistic or prophetic form. In most other cases, the voluminous talk about intuition does nothing but conceal a lack of perspective toward the object, which merits the same judgement as a similar lack of perspective toward men.”

KnowsMenGivingHumansWellsDoeFormDestinyCasesPathSeaObjectsExpressionPerspectiveMountainSightIntuitionArtisticJudgementMeritGiftedSectionsSurveysPropheticMajestic
Book:The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism
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“[In] the realm of science, ... what we have achieved will be obsolete in ten, twenty or fifty years. That is the fate, indeed, that is the very meaning of scientific work. ... Every scientific "fulfillment" raises new "questions" and cries out to be surpassed rendered obsolete. Everyone who wishes to serve science has to resign himself to this.”

YearsScienceWishFateCryHard WorkTenAccountsTwentiesRaisesFulfillmentRealmsFiftyObsoleteVery Mean
Book:The Vocation Lectures
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“Capitalism may even be identical with the restraint, or at least a rational tempering, of this irrational impulse. But capitalism is identical with the restraint, or at least a rational tempering, of this irrational impulse. But capitalism is identical with the pursuit of profit, and forever renewed profit, by means of continuous, rational, capitalistic enterprise.”

MayMeanForeverCapitalismProfitPursuitRationalImpulseEnterpriseIrrationalRestraintIdentical
Book:The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism
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“The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the 'disenchantment of the world.' Precisely the ultimate and most sublime values have retreated from public life either into the transcendental realm of mystic life or into the brotherliness of direct and personal human relations. It is not accidental that our greatest art is intimate and not monumental.”

WorldHumansArtPhilosophyValuesFateArt IsDirectUltimateRelationHistoricalIntimateRealmsOur TimeSublimeMysticPublic LifeHuman RelationsTranscendentalDisenchantment
Book:From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology
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“The fate of an epoch that has eaten of the tree of knowledge is that it must...recognize that general views of life and the universe can never be the products of increasing empirical knowledge, and that the highest ideals, which move us most forcefully, are always formed only in the struggle with other ideals which are just as sacred to others as ours are to us.”

MovingUniverseViewsStruggleFateTreeProductsHighestIdealsSacredEpochTree Of Knowledge
Book:On the Methodology of the Social Sciences
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“In the midst of a culture that is rationally organized for a vocational workaday life, there is hardly any room for the cultivation of acosmic brotherliness, unless it is among strata who are economically carefree. Under the technical and social conditions of rational culture, an imitation of the life of Buddha, Jesus, or Francis seems condemned to failure for purely external reasons.”

ReasonSeemsCultureJesusSocialRoomsConditionsRationalOrganizedMidstImitationCultivationCarefreeSocial Conditions
Book:From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology
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