Max Weber
64 likes50,513 views
This document provides an overview of sociologist Max Weber's key ideas. It summarizes Weber's focus on the relationship between culture/worldviews and economics, and his argument that secular capitalism has religious and cultural origins, as outlined in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Specifically, Weber argued that Protestant beliefs like Calvinism encouraged the values of hard work, asceticism, and profit accumulation that helped give rise to the spirit of modern capitalism.
Max Weber
- 1. Max Weber 1864-1920 Dr. John Bradford
- 2. Culture and Economics • How are economics and culture (worldviews, values, beliefs) related? • Like Marx, Weber too focused on structures of capitalism and inequality • Unlike Marx, Weber focused on the analytical independence and causality of culture/beliefs • Implication: Secular capitalism has religious and cultural origins. Culture Economics
- 3. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism • Capitalism is defined by Weber as the pursuit of forever renewed profit by means of rational (calculating) capitalistic enterprise. • ‘Spirit of Capitalism’ = the calling to make more money as an end in itself, and to work hard for its own sake as a sign of salvation. This is a new psychological disposition.
- 4. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism • The Protestant Ethic is the ‘Spirit of Capitalism’! The Protestant Ethic (aka Puritan Ethic, Work Ethic) means: 1. sacrificing and saving for the future and 2. adopting a rational (= calculating) attitude towards life. • Spirit of (early) modern capitalism distinguished by hard work and asceticism (frugality); not by greed or self-indulgence
- 5. Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation • Protestants more likely than Catholics to have business occupations, WHY? • Martin Luther inaugurated (began) the Protestant Reformation in 1517, which rejected the hierarchical authority structure and doctrines Martin Luther of the Catholic Church (1483-1546)
- 6. Calvinism Tenets of Calvinism: 1. the doctrine of predestination- the idea that one’s salvation is already decided/pre-ordained by God; 2. God’s will can not be known or interpreted (e.g. by a priest) 3. Purpose of this-world activities is to serve God diligently • To convince others (and themselves) John Calvin (1509-1564) that they were already chosen, Calvinists would work hard and sacrifice for the future because God would only select the industrious…
- 7. Calvinism and ‘the calling’ to work really, really, hard… • What should the individual God-fearing believer do? • Idea of the calling: Labor in a calling/a vocation; dedicated this-worldly activity to glorify God. • Success in this world is a sign of salvation in the next world! • The Calvinist took it as his duty to demonstrate proof of his salvation. John Calvin • This was accomplished through rational, (1509-1564) methodical self-control, self-discipline. Avoid spontaneous enjoyment; avoid anything that would distract from work • “Every hour lost is lost to labor for the glory of God”
- 8. How Calvinism Created Capitalism • Hard work, combined with asceticism, produces money/profit accumulation • Expansion of capitalism is an unintended consequence of Calvinists’ religious beliefs and their rationalization of those beliefs 1. Anxiety over 2. Hard Work + after-life Frugality (as sign of salvation) 3. Accumulate 4. Capitalism! Savings and Investments
- 9. Sociology and ‘Social Action’ Social action: action that is meaningfully oriented toward the behavior of others. Sociology as the study of subjectively meaningful action Verstehen = ‘understanding’
- 10. Rationality and Social Action Two Ideal-types of social action: Rational means ‘efficient’; adopting the most efficient means to achieve a given end: MONEY. (Gesellschaft) Non-rational (not irrational!) means non-calculating behavior, including habits, traditions, and anything you do for its own sake (e.g. for the fun of it, or because it constitutes a way of life for you).
- 11. Rationality and Social Action • Rational Action 1. Instrumental rational action: calculating strategic action – Driven by a rational assessment of the costs and benefits of selecting particular courses of action 2. Value rational action: commitment to a particular value (e.g., commitment to God, family, the poor, country etc.), motivates deliberate, methodical rational action in the service of that value – Pursue actions consistent with values irrespective of their costs the value-commitment
- 12. Social Research and Ideal-Types • Ideal-types are conceptual analytical devices which accentuate characteristics or behavior we would expect to find in looking at a social phenomenon in its “pure” form • Aids in comparative analysis – Examples: comparing the ideal typical Protestant to the ideal typical Buddhist…
- 13. Power, Authority, Domination • Power definitions: i) ‘the probability that an actor ... will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability rests’ ii) ‘the chance of a man or a number of men to realize their own will even against the resistance of others...’ iii) ‘Power means every chance within a social relationship to assert one’s will even against opposition” (in Habermas).
- 14. Power, Authority, Domination • Authority/Domination: Probability that commands will be obeyed/complied with. • “Without exception every sphere of social action is profoundly influenced by structures of domination” (28) – German Herrschaft, (‘domination’) also translated as “imperative control” (Parsons), and also “rule”. • Domination (authority) is always only one side of a command-obedience relationship
- 15. Ideal types of authority Modern society: – Rational, legal authority based on impersonal, rationally established rules and laws – Example: Bureaucracy: formal , impersonal form of organization; a rational, efficient way of accomplishing tasks in a modern, complex society. Traditional society: – Non-rational authority based on habits, emotions, sanctity of tradition, etc.
- 16. Characteristics of Bureaucracy • Impersonal criteria in social relations; obligations of office • Hierarchy of offices/divisions/personnel • Division of labor, specific competencies • Contractual relationships; open recruitment • Technical qualifications; certified expertise; merit; appointed not elected • Fixed salaries/benefits
- 17. Charismatic Authority • Non-rational type of authority • Can co-exist alongside legal rational, and traditional authority • Charisma resides in the individual; persona grace/charm • The charismatic individual persuades people to do things—has authority over them • Charismatic community: Unified by members’ shared emotional attachment to the charismatic leader • Charismatic authority is temporary; resides in the individual (not in bureaucratic office/occupation)
- 18. Charismatic Authority • Charismatic leaders use personal authority to generate mass followings that challenge the traditional order. • The charisma dies with the individual’s death/scandal Mussolini and Hitler are etc. (negative) examples of charismatic leaders
- 19. Social Stratification • The processes determining individuals’ and groups’ objective location in the system of social classes • Weber, unlike Marx, sees multiple sources/gradients of inequality/stratification Class is based on Economic resources, Individuals who have similar life chances as a result of property, income, and labor market opportunity. Status is based on Social status, prestige, honor, life-style. Political power
- 20. Modernity and Values • Core dilemma of modern society: Tension among conflicting values; which values to pursue? • Scientific knowledge/progress cannot answer the core questions: – What shall we do? How shall we live? – Science, including sociology are value-neutral; sociologists study society with passion and objectivity; attentive to “inconvenient facts”