SOC3070 - Lecture 5

Max Weber

Some limits of Marxist historical sociology:- subjective meaning of action- cultural context of meaning

Emphasis on structural necessity, and law-like connections between past structure, present action, and future structure

Individual meaning is secondary in historical explanation (as in Durkheim). In a sense, individuals do not know what they do

Durkheim on suicide: at the most fundamental level, action is determined by large structural factors

The meaning of action is inferred from the broader structural setting

Max Weber

People act on the basis of their beliefs and ideas

Main task of sociology: explaining action in terms of its meaning for the actor

i.e., the interpretation of action in its subjective meaning (the verstehen method)

To provide an objective account for subjective worlds.

Social science attributes meaning to events. It offers a necessarily partial, one-sided point of view on society (the sociologist is only human)

The flux of events is infinitely rich, and we study only what is significant for us, in ways that are significant for us

At least, however, the sociologist is aware of the constructed nature of the concepts she is using. Sociologists creates ‘ideas’ of reality, models. Weber calls them ‘ideal types’

Ideal types are formally precise statements of possible relationships. E.g.: capitalism, the city economy, the state, Christianity, etc

They are tools that can be used to understand reality, which is much more complex and ambiguous. They help us make sense of phenomena

Developmental Ideal Types (e.g. transition form feudalism to capitalism) can easily be confused with historical reality. Marx, for example, believed he had found real laws, tendencies and necessities

Weber’s historical problem

How did capitalism emerge?

Why it became positively meaningful to people at a precise time and place?

The ‘ingredients’ of capitalism are not enough as an explanation

For Weber, modern society is characterized above all by its rationalism.

i.e., by rationalist forms of action, based on a calculating, amoral approach to human problems

Rationalisation: abstract and calculable procedures increasingly replace sentiment, tradition, religion, and tacit knowledge in all spheres of activity. The world is disenchanted

The rationalisation of politics gives rise to:- systems of formal law- bureaucratic administration

The rationalisation of culture brought to the decline of magic and religion in favour of science

The rationalisation of economics gives rise to capitalism (accumulation of capital for its own sake)

Rationalism as the distinctive orientation to action of the modern world, its central mode of meaning

The Spirit of Capitalism

Which was the world of meaning in which capitalist economic action was enable to grow? Which was the ethos that favored it?

1904 - The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

1919 - General Economic History

How did this state of mind came about?

Capitalist activities are common in history.

To become the dominant mode of economic action, capitalism needed a general rationalistion of society. This crated the opportunity for capitalism to emerge (law, private property, bureaucracy, labour, etc.)

Capitalism for Marx is a type of relationship, for Weber is type of practice, a way of organising and giving meaning to economic action.

Weber emphasizes its cultural dimension and its opposition to traditionalism. But how did it succeeded?

Not because people became more interested in money and profit.

It was the appearance of the Protestant ethic that provided legitimation for a rationalised conduct of life

Social relations and practices previously banned or inconceivable become proper, and in fact necessary

The Protestant ethic is centered on the idea of ‘the calling’, a vocation in which the individual has a compelling duty to labour

The moral value of work. Labour as an end in itself. Life is a tool to be used rationally for the glory of God. From here the relentlessness of the pursuit of profit

Quote from Benjamin Franklin

Christianity, unlike other religions, conceives human destiny as a rational design. Fate is intelligible (against magic)

Asceticism: the believer disciplines herself and subject her life to the rationality of the divine plan. Human being are responsible for their progress towards salvation, but with the mediation of the Church. The monastery

With the Reformation all believers are made responsible for the rational organisation of their own destinies. Everybody’s life is a calling

The problem of salvation. Live your life as if you know you are saved: intense worldly activity and self-control to attain self-confidence

Legitimating context for capitalist practices (they have now a new meaning)

What kind of explanation is this?‘Cumulative’ explanation

Without the Protestant ethic capitalism would not have emerged (hence it is a cause, together with formal law and bureaucratic administration)

Ethic gave capitalist activity a new meaning, but the other conditions were necessary as well (hence they are causes as well)