For other people named Max Weber, see Max Weber (disambiguation). Max Weber German sociologist and political economist Born 21 April 1864(1864-04-21) Erfurt, Prussian Saxony Died 14 June 1920(1920-06-14) (aged 56) Munich, Bavaria Karl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber (German pronunciation: [ˈmaks ˈveːbɐ]; 21 April 1864 – 14 June 1920) was a German sociologist and political economist, who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself.1 Weber's major works dealt with the rationalization and "disenchantment" he associated with the rise of capitalism and modernity.2 Weber was, along with his associate Georg Simmel, a central figure in the establishment of methodological antipositivism, which presents sociology as a non-empiricist field which must study social action through interpretive means based upon understanding the meaning and purpose that the individual attaches to their actions.3 He is typically cited, with Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx, as one of the three principal architects of modern social science,4 and has been described as the most important classic thinker in the social sciences.56 Weber is most famous for the thesis in economic sociology which he elaborated in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. In this text, Weber argued that ascetic Protestantism particular to the Occident was one of the major "elective affinities" associated with the rise of capitalism, bureaucracy and the rational-legal nation-state. Arguing against what he felt was Marx's overly-materialistic interpretation of the development of capitalism, he instead emphasized the cultural influences embedded in religion.7 The Protestant Ethic formed the earliest work in Weber's broader project in the sociology of religion: he would go on to examine the religions of China, the religions of India, and ancient Judaism, with particular regard to the apparent non-development of capitalism in the corresponding societies, and to differing forms of social stratification. In another major work, Politics as a Vocation, Weber defined the state as an entity which claims a "monopoly on the legitimate use of violence", a definition that became pivotal to the study of modern Western political science. His analysis of bureaucracy in his Economy and Society is still central to the modern study of organizations. Weber was the first to recognize several diverse aspects of social authority, which he respectively categorized according to their charismatic, traditional, and legal forms. His analysis of bureaucracy emphasized that modern state institutions are based on a form of rational-legal authority. Weber's thought regarding the rationalizing and secularizing tendencies of modern Western society (sometimes described as the "Weber Thesis") led to the development of critical theory, particularly in the work of later thinkers such as Jürgen Habermas. After the First World War, Weber was among the founders of the liberal German Democratic Party. He ran unsuccessfully for a seat in parliament and participated in the board that drafted the ill-fated, post-World War I Weimar Constitution, where he advocated a strong, popularly-elected presidency.4 Contents 1 Biography 2 Achievements 3 Sociology of religion 3.1 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 3.2 The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism 3.3 The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism 3.4 Ancient Judaism 3.5 Economy and Society 4 Sociology of politics and government 5 Economics 5.1 As a critic of socialism 6 Critical responses to Weber 6.1 Historical critiques 6.2 Critiques on Weber's historicism 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links // Biography Weber was born in 1864, in Erfurt in Thuringia, the eldest of seven children of Max Weber Sr., a wealthy and prominent politician in the National Liberal Party (Germany) and a civil servant, and Helene Fallenstein, a Protestant and a Calvinist, with strong moral absolutist ideas.8 Weber Sr.'s engagement with public life immersed the family home in politics, as his salon received many prominent scholars and public figures. The young Weber and his brother Alfred, who also became a sociologist and economist, thrived in this intellectual atmosphere. Weber's 1876 Christmas presents to his parents, when he was thirteen years old, were two historical essays entitled "About the course of German history, with special reference to the positions of the emperor and the pope" and "About the Roman Imperial period from Constantine to the migration of nations".9 Max Weber and his brothers, Alfred and Karl, in 1879 In 1882 Weber enrolled in the University of Heidelberg as a law student.10 In 1886 Weber passed the examination for "Referendar", comparable to the bar association examination in the British and American legal systems. Throughout the late 1880s, Weber continued his study of history. He earned his law doctorate in 1889 by writing a doctoral dissertation on legal history entitled The History of Medieval Business Organisations.10 Two years later, Weber completed his Habilitationsschrift, The Roman Agrarian History and its Significance for Public and Private Law.11 Having thus become a "Privatdozent", Weber was now qualified to hold a German professorship.citation needed

In the years between the completion of his dissertation and habilitation, Weber took an interest in contemporary social policy. In 1888 he joined the "Verein für Socialpolitik",12 the new professional association of German economists affiliated with the historical school, who saw the role of economics primarily as the solving of the wide-ranging social problems of the age, and who pioneered large scale statistical studies of economic problems. He also involved himself in politics, joining the left leaning Evangelical Social Congress.13 In 1890 the "Verein" established a research program to examine "the Polish question" or Ostflucht, meaning the influx of foreign farm workers into eastern Germany as local labourers migrated to Germany's rapidly industrialising cities. Weber was put in charge of the study, and wrote a large part of its results.12 The final report was widely acclaimed as an excellent piece of empirical research,weasel words and cemented Weber's reputation as an expert in agrarian economics.citation needed Max Weber and his wife Marianne in 1894 In 1893 he married his distant cousin Marianne Schnitger, later a feminist and author in her own right,14 who was instrumental in collecting and publishing Weber's journal articles as books after his death. The couple moved to Freiburg in 1894, where Weber was appointed professor of economics at Freiburg University,11 before accepting the same position at the University of Heidelberg in 1896.11 Next year, Max Weber Sr. died, two months after a severe quarrel with his son that was never resolved.15 After this, Weber became increasingly prone to nervousness and insomnia, making it difficult for him to fulfill his duties as a professor.11 His condition forced him to reduce his teaching, and leave his last course in the fall of 1899 unfinished. After spending months in a sanatorium during the summer and fall of 1900, Weber and his wife traveled to Italy at the end of the year, and did not return to Heidelberg until April 1902.citation needed After Weber's immense productivity in the early 1890s, he did not publish any papers between early 1898 and late 1902, finally resigning his professorship in late 1903. Freed from those obligations, in that year he accepted a position as associate editor of the Archives for Social Science and Social Welfare16 next to his colleagues Edgar Jaffé and Werner Sombart.17 In 1904, Weber began to publish some of his most seminal papers in this journal, notably his essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. It became his most famous work,18 and laid the foundations for his later research on the impact of cultures and religions on the development of economic systems.19 This essay was the only one of his works that was published as a book during his lifetime. Also that year, he visited the United States and participated in the Congress of Arts and Sciences held in connection with the World's Fair (Louisiana Purchase Exposition) at St. Louis. Despite his successes, Weber felt that he was unable to resume regular teaching at that time, and continued on as a private scholar, helped by an inheritance in 1907.16 In 1912, Weber tried to organise a left-wing political party to combine social-democrats and liberals. This attempt was unsuccessful, presumably because many liberals feared social-democratic revolutionary ideals at the time.20 Max Weber in 1917 During the First World War, Weber served for a time as director of the army hospitals in Heidelberg.1621 In 1915 and 1916 he sat on commissions that tried to retain German supremacy in Belgium and Poland after the war. Weber's views on war, as well as on expansion of the German empire, changed throughout the war.202122 He became a member of the worker and soldier council of Heidelberg in 1918. In the same year, Weber became a consultant to the German Armistice Commission at the Treaty of Versailles and to the commission charged with drafting the Weimar Constitution.16 He argued in favor of inserting Article 48 into the Weimar Constitution.23 This article was later used by Adolf Hitler to institute rule by decree, thereby allowing his government to suppress opposition and obtain dictatorial powers. Weber's contributions to German politics remain a controversial subject to this day. Weber resumed teaching during this time, first at the University of Vienna, then in 1919 at the University of Munich.16 In Munich, he headed the first German university institute of sociology, but ultimately never held a personal sociology appointment. Many colleagues and students in Munich argued against him for his speeches and left-wing attitude during the German Revolution of 1918 and 1919, with some right-wing students holding protests in front of his home.20 Max Weber contracted the Spanish flu and died of pneumonia in Munich on 14 June 1920. Achievements

Weber's most famous work relates to economic sociology, political sociology, and the sociology of religion. Along with Karl Marx and Émile Durkheim,24 he is regarded as one of the founders of modern sociology. In his time, however, Weber was viewed primarily as a historian and an economist.2425 The breadth of Weber's topical interests is apparent in the depth of his social theory: The affinity between capitalism and Protestantism, the religious origins of the Western world, the force of charisma in religion as well as in politics, the all-embracing process of rationalization and the bureaucratic price of progress, the role of legitimacy and of violence as offsprings of leadership, the 'disenchantment' of the modern world together with the never-ending power of religion, the antagonistic relation between intellectualism and eroticism: all these are key concepts which attest to the enduring fascination of Weber's thinking. – Radkau, Joachim Max Weber: A Biography 200526 Whereas Durkheim, following Comte, worked in the positivist tradition, Weber created and worked –like Werner Sombart, his friend and then the most famous representative of German sociology– in the antipositivist, hermeneutic, tradition.27 These works pioneered the antipositivistic revolution in social sciences, stressing (as in the work of Wilhelm Dilthey) the difference between the social sciences and natural sciences.27 We know of no scientifically ascertainable ideals. To be sure, that makes our efforts more arduous than in the past, since we are expected to create our ideals from within our breast in the very age of subjectivist culture. – Max Weber Economy and society 190928 The principle of "methodological individualism," which holds that social scientists should seek to understand collectivities (such as nations, cultures, governments, churches, corporations, etc.) solely as the result and the context of the actions of individual persons, can be traced to Weber, particularly to the first chapter of Economy and Society, in which he argues that only individuals "can be treated as agents in a course of subjectively understandable action." In other words, Weber argued that social phenomena can be understood scientifically only to the extent that they are captured by models of the behavior of purposeful individuals, models which Weber called "ideal types," from which actual historical events will necessarily deviate due to accidental and irrational factors.29 Weber presented sociology as the science of human social action; action which he separated into traditional, affectional, value-rational and instrumental.30 [Sociology is] the science whose object is to interpret the meaning of social action and thereby give a causal explanation of the way in which the action proceeds and the effects which it produces. By 'action' in this definition is meant the human behaviour when and to the extent that the agent or agents see it as subjectively meaningful ... the meaning to which we refer may be either (a) the meaning actually intended either by an individual agent on a particular historical occasion or by a number of agents on an approximate average in a given set of cases, or (b) the meaning attributed to the agent or agents, as types, in a pure type constructed in the abstract. In neither case is the 'meaning' to be thought of as somehow objectively 'correct' or 'true' by some metaphysical criterion. This is the difference between the empirical sciences of action, such as sociology and history, and any kind of priori discipline, such as jurisprudence, logic, ethics, or aesthetics whose aim is to extract from their subject-matter 'correct' or 'valid' meaning. – Max Weber The Nature of Social Action 1922, 31 Weber began his studies of rationalisation in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, in which he argued that the redefinition of the connection between work and piety in Protestantism, and especially in ascetic Protestant denominations, particularly Calvinism,32 shifted human effort towards rational efforts aimed at achieving economic gain. In Calvinism in particular, but also in Lutheranism, Christian piety towards God was expressed through or in one's secular vocation. Calvin, in particular, viewed the expression of the work ethic as a sign of "election". The rational roots of this doctrine, he argued, soon grew incompatible with and larger than the religious, and so the latter were eventually discarded.33 Weber continued his investigation into this matter in later works, notably in his studies on bureaucracy and on the classifications of authority into three types—legitimate, traditional, and charismatic. In these works Weber described what he saw as society's movement towards rationalization. What Weber depicted was not only the secularization of Western culture, but also and especially the development of modern societies from the viewpoint of rationalization. The new structures of society were marked by the differentiation of the two functionally intermeshing systems that had taken shape around the organizational cores of the capitalist enterprise and the bureaucratic state apparatus. Weber understood this process as the institutionalization of purposive-rational economic and administrative action. To the degree that everyday life was affected by this cultural and societal rationalization, tradional forms of life - which in the early modern period were differentated primarily according to one's trade - were dissolved. – Jürgen Habermas Modernity's Consciousness of Time, 2

Many of Weber's works famous today were collected, revised, and published posthumously. Significant interpretations of his writings were produced by such sociological luminaries as Talcott Parsons and C. Wright Mills. Parsons in particular imparted to Weber's works a functionalist, teleological perspective; this personal interpretation has been criticised for a latent conservatism.34 Sociology of religion Weber's work in the field of sociology of religion started with the essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, which grew out of heavy "field work" among Protestant sects in America, and continued with the analysis of The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism, The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism, and Ancient Judaism. His work on other religions was interrupted by his sudden death in 1920, which prevented him from following Ancient Judaism with studies of Psalms, Book of Jacob, Talmudic Jewry, early Christianity and Islam.35 His three main themes were the effect of religious ideas on economic activities, the relation between social stratification and religious ideas, and the distinguishable characteristics of Western civilization.36 His goal was to find reasons for the different development paths of the cultures of the Occident and the Orient, although without judging or valuing them, like some of the contemporary thinkers who followed the social Darwinist paradigm; Weber wanted primarily to explain the distinctive elements of the Western civilization.36 In the analysis of his findings, Weber maintained that Calvinist (and more widely, Protestant) religious ideas had had a major impact on the social innovation and development of the economic system of Europe and the United States, but noted that they were not the only factors in this development. Other notable factors mentioned by Weber included the rationalism of scientific pursuit, merging observation with mathematics, science of scholarship and jurisprudence, rational systematization of government administration, and economic enterprise.36 In the end, the study of the sociology of religion, according to Weber, focused on one distinguishing part of the Western culture, the decline of beliefs in magic, or what he referred to as "disenchantment of the world".36 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Main article: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Cover of the original German edition of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Weber's essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus) is his most famous work.18 It is argued that this work should not be viewed as a detailed study of Protestantism, but rather as an introduction into Weber's later works, especially his studies of interaction between various religious ideas and economic behaviour. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber put forward the thesis that Calvinist ethic and ideas influenced the development of capitalism. He noted the shift of Europe's economic center after the Reformation away from Catholic countries such as France, Spain and Italy, and toward Protestant countries such as the Netherlands, England, Scotland and Germany.Weber also noted that societies having more Protestants were those that have a more developed capitalist economy.37 Christian religious devotion had historically been accompanied by rejection of mundane affairs, including economic pursuit.38 Weber showed that certain types of Protestantism – notably Calvinism – were supportive of rational pursuit of economic gain and worldly activities dedicated to it, seeing them as endowed with moral and spiritual significance.32 Weber argued that there were many reasons to look for the origins of modern capitalism in the religious ideas of the Reformation.39 This theory is often viewed as a reversal of Marx's thesis that the economic "base" of society determines all other aspects of it.32 Weber abandoned research into Protestantism because his colleague Ernst Troeltsch, a professional theologian, had begun work on the book The Social Teachings of the Christian Churches and Sects. Another reason for Weber's decision was that Troeltsch's work already achieved what he desired in that area, which is laying groundwork for comparative analysis of religion and society.40 The phrase "work ethic" used in modern commentary is a derivative of the "Protestant ethic" discussed by Weber. It was adopted when the idea of the Protestant ethic was generalised to apply to the Japanese people, Jews and other non-Christians. The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism Main article: The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism was Weber's second major work on the sociology of religion. Weber focused on those aspects of Chinese society that were different from those of Western Europe and especially contrasted with Puritanism, and posed a question why capitalism did not develop in China.41 He focused on the issues of Chinese urban development, Chinese patrimonialism and officialdom, and Chinese religion, as the areas in which Chinese development differed most distinctively from the European route.41

According to Weber, Confucianism and Puritanism are mutually exclusive types of rational thought, each attempting to prescribe a way of life based on religious dogma. Notably, they both valued self control and restraint, and did not oppose accumulation of wealth. However, to both those qualities where just means to the final goal, and here they were divided by a key difference. The Confucianism goal was "a cultured status position", while Puritanism's goal was to create individuals who are "tools of God". The intensity of belief and enthusiasm for action were rare in Confucianism, but common in Protestantism. Therefore, Weber states that it was this difference in social attitudes and mentality, shaped by the respective, dominant religions, that contributed to the development of capitalism in the West and the absence of it in China.42 The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism Main article: The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism was Weber's third major work on the sociology of religion. In this work he deals with the structure of Indian society, with the orthodox doctrines of Hinduism and the heterodox doctrines of Buddhism, with modifications brought by the influence of popular religiosity, and finally with the impact of religious beliefs on the secular ethic of Indian society.43 Weber ended his research of society and religion in India by bringing in insights from his previous work on China to discuss similarities of the Asian belief systems. He notes that the beliefs saw the meaning of life as otherwoldy mystical experience. The social world is fundamentally divided between the educated elite, following the guidance of a prophet or wise man, and the uneducated masses whose believes are centered on magic. In Asia, there was no Messianic prophecy to plan and meaning to the everyday life of educated and uneducated alike. Weber juxtaposed such Messianic prophecies, notably from the Near East region to those found on the Asiatic mainland, focusing more on exemplary ways to live one's life. It was those differences that prevented the countries of the Occident from following the paths of the earlier Chinese and Indian civilizations. His next work, Ancient Judaism was an attempt to prove this theory.44 Ancient Judaism Main article: Ancient Judaism (book) In Ancient Judaism, his fourth major work on the sociology of religion, Weber attempted to explain the factors which resulted in the early differences between Oriental and Occidental religiosity.45 It is especially visible when the innerworldly asceticism developed by Western Christianity is contrasted with mystical contemplation of the kind developed in India.45 Weber noted that some aspects of Christianity sought to conquer and change the world, rather than withdraw from its imperfections.45 This fundamental characteristic of Christianity (when compared to Far Eastern religions) stems originally from ancient Jewish prophecy.46 Weber notes that Judaism not only fathered Christianity and Islam, but was crucial to the rise of modern Occident state, as its influence were as important to those of Hellenistic and Roman cultures. Weber's premature death in 1920 prevented him from following Ancient Judaism with his planned analysis of Psalms, Book of Jacob, Talmudic Jewry, early Christianity and Islam. Economy and Society Main article: Economy and Society In Economy and Society Weber distinguished three ideal types of religious activity47: 1. world-flying mysticism 2. world-rejecting asceticism 3. inner-worldly asceticism He also separated magic as pre-religious activity. Sociology of politics and government In political sociology, one of Weber's most significant contributions is his Politics as a Vocation essay. Therein, Weber unveils the definition of the state that has become so pivotal to Western social thought: that the state is that entity which possesses a delegatable monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force.48 Weber wrote that politics derives from power, as is to be understood as any activity in which the state might engage itself in order to influence the relative distribution of force. A politician must not be a man of the "true Christian ethic", understood by Weber as being the ethic of the Sermon on the Mount, that is to say, the injunction to turn the other cheek. An adherent of such an ethic ought rather to be understood to be a saint, for it is only saints, according to Weber, that can appropriately follow it. The political realm is no realm for saints. A politician ought to marry the ethic of ultimate ends and the ethic of responsibility, and must possess both a passion for his vocation and the capacity to distance himself from the subject of his exertions (the governed).49 Weber distinguished three ideal types of political leadership, domination and authority: charismatic domination (familial and religious), traditional domination (patriarchs, patrimonialism, feudalism), and legal domination (modern law and state, bureaucracy).50

In his view, every historical relation between rulers and ruled contained such elements and they can be analysed on the basis of this tripartite distinction.51 He notes that the instability of charismatic authority forces it to "routinize" into a more structured form of authority. In a pure type of traditional rule, sufficient resistance to a ruler can lead to a "traditional revolution". The move towards a rational-legal structure of authority, utilising a bureaucratic structure, is inevitable in the end.52 Thus this theory can be sometimes viewed as part of the social evolutionism theory. This ties to his broader concept of rationalisation by suggesting the inevitability of a move in this direction. Weber is also well-known for his critical study of the bureaucratisation of society, the rational ways in which formal social organizations apply the ideal type characteristics of a bureaucracy. It was Weber who began the studies of bureaucracy and whose works led to the popularization of this term.53 Many aspects of modern public administration go back to him, and a classic, hierarchically organized civil service of the Continental type is called "Weberian civil service", although this is only one ideal type of public administration and government described in his magnum opus Economy and Society (1922), and one that he did not particularly like himself – he only thought it particularly efficient and successful. In this work, Weber outlines a description, which has become famous, of rationalization (of which bureaucratization is a part) as a shift from a value-oriented organization and action (traditional authority and charismatic authority) to a goal-oriented organization and action (legal-rational authority). The result, according to Weber, is a "polar night of icy darkness", in which increasing rationalization of human life traps individuals in an "iron cage" of rule-based, rational control.54 Weber's bureaucracy studies also led him to his analysis that socialism in Russia would lead to over-bureaucratization rather than to the "withering away of the state" (as Karl Marx had predicted would happen in communist society).55 Economics Weber considered himself primarily a "political economist,"2425 though today his contributions to economics are largely overshadowed by his role as a founder of modern sociology. Both his defense of "methodological individualism" and his criticism of the feasibility of a socialist command economy were major influences on Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian school of economics [3]. Weber the economist has been classified as a representative of the "Youngest" German historical school of economics.56 Perhaps his most valued contributions to the field of economics is his work on the differences between religions and their attitude toward capitalism, which he explored in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism as well as in his other works on the sociology of religion.56 Weber's ideas on the methodology of the social sciences have also been influential among economists. According to Weber's theses, social research cannot be fully inductive or descriptive. To understand something we must go beyond mere description and interpret it; interpretation means classification with the use of the abstract "ideal (pure) type".56 This, together with his antipositivistic argumentation (see Verstehen) can be viewed as the methodological justification for the assumption of the "rational economic man" (homo economicus) and of "methodological individualism" in general.56 Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification, with Social class, Social status and party (or politicals) as conceptually distinct elements.57 Social class is based on economically determined relationship to the market (owner, renter, employee etc.). Status is based on non-economical qualities like honour, prestige and religion. Party refers to affiliations in the political domain. All three dimensions have consequences for what Weber called "life chances".57 Weber's other contributions to economics include his early work on the economic history of Roman agrarian society (1891), on the labor relations in Eastern Germany (1892), his analysis of the he profit, risk and cost of an enterprise were carried by several individuals in the Middle Ages (1889), his criticism of Marxism and discussion of the roles of idealism and materialism in the history of capitalism in his Economy and Society (1922) (published posthumously) and his General Economic History (1923), a notable example of the empirical work of the Historical School.56 As a critic of socialism Weber developed a critique of socialism as an economically impossible system.58 Socialist central planners can resort to calculation in-kind, but this type of economic coordination would be grossly inefficient. According to Weber, the main reason why a socialist in-kind mode of economic calculation cannot work is because it is unable to solve the problem of imputation (i.e. to determine the relative price of capital goods):

In order to make possible a rational utilization of the means of production, a system of in-kind accounting would have to determine "value"-indicators of some kind for the individual capital goods which could take over the role of the "prices" used in book valuation in modern business accounting. But it is not at all clear how such indicators could be established, and in particular, verified; whether, for instance, they should vary from one production unit to the next (on the basis of economic location), or whether they should be uniform for the entire economy, on the basis of "social utility," that is, of (present and future) consumption requirements? [...] Nothing is gained by assuming that, if only the problem of a non-monetary economy were seriously enough attacked, a suitable accounting method would be discovered or invented. The problem is fundamental to any kind of complete socialization. We cannot speak of a rational "planned economy" so long as in this decisive respect we have no instrument for elaborating a rational "plan".59 This argument against socialism was taken up by Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, of the Austrian school of economics, and became central to free market economics' intellectual assault on socialism in general [4]. Hayek's argument that markets communicate efficiently through pricing, and cannot be duplicated by central planning, won him the Nobel Prize in 1974 [5]. Critical responses to Weber Historical critiques The economist Joseph Schumpeter argued that capitalism did not begin with the Industrial Revolution but in 14th century Italy.60 In Milan, Venice, and Florence the small city-state governments led to the development of the earliest forms of capitalism.61 In the 16th century Antwerp was a commercial center of Europe. It was also noted that the predominantly Calvinist country of Scotland did not enjoy the same economic growth as the Netherlands, England, and New England. In addition, it has been pointed out that the Netherlands, which had a Calvinist majority, industrialized much later in the 19th century than predominantly Catholic Belgium, which was one of the centres of the Industrial Revolution on the European mainland.62 Emil Kauder expanded Schumpeter's argument by arguing the hypothesis that Calvinism hurt the development of capitalism by leading to the development of the labor theory of value. Kauder writes "Any social philosopher or economist exposed to Calvinism will be tempted to give labor an exalted position in his social or economic treatise, and no better way of extolling labor can be found than by combining work with value theory, traditionally the very basis of an economic system."63 In contrast, Catholic areas that were influenced by the late scholastics were more likely to adhere to the subjective theory of value. Critiques on Weber's historicism In his book Natural Right and History, German-American classicist Leo Strauss criticized Max Weber as a main proponent of historicism along with G.W.F. Hegel and others. See also Interpretations of Weber's liberalism Max Weber bibliography Social Stratification Sociology of law Speeches of Max Weber Weber and German politics References ^ "Max Weber." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 20 Apr. 2009. [1] ^ a b Habermas, Jürgen, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, Polity Press (1985), ISBN 0-7456-0830-2, p2 ^ Weber wrote his books in German. Original titles printed after his death (1920) are most likely compilations of his unfinished works (of the 'Collected Essays...' form). Many translations are made of parts or sections of various German originals, and the names of the translations often do not reveal what part of German work they contain. Weber's work is generally quoted according to the critical Gesamtausgabedead link (collected works edition), which is published by Mohr Siebeck in Tübingen. For an extensive list of Max Weber's works see list of Max Weber works. ^ a b Kim, Sung Ho (2007). "Max Weber". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (24 August 2007 entry) http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/weber/ . Retrieved 17 February 2010. ^ "The prestige of Max Weber among European social scientists would be difficult to over-estimate." – Gerth, Hans Heinrich and Charles Wright Mills (eds.) (1991). From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. Routledge, p.i. ^ Radkau, Joachim and Patrick Ca miller. (2009). Max Weber: A Biography. Trans. Patrick Ca miller. Polity Press. (ISBN 9780745641478) ^ Weber, Max The Protestant Ethic and "The Spirit of Capitalism" (1905). Translated by Stephen Kalberg (2002), Roxbury Publishing Company, pp. 19 & 35; Weber's references on these pages to "Superstructure" and "base" are unambiguous references to Marxism's base/superstructure theory. ^ Periodical, Sociology Volume 250, September 1999, 'Max Weber' ^ Sica, Alan (2004). Max Weber and the New Century. London: Transaction Publishers, p. 24. ISBN 0-7658-0190-6. ^ a b Bendix, Reinhard (1 July 1977). Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait. University of California Press. p. 1. ISBN 0-520-03194-6. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0520031946&id=63sC9uaYqQsC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&sig=g-kn8gtBIRvG-ss0I_-BmrBz9YE.  ^ a b c d Bendix. Max Weber. p. 2. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0520031946&id=63sC9uaYqQsC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&sig=SieKjdgz3D2sHx8CUBXW4PSeoDQ.  ^ a b Gianfranco Poggi, Weber: A Short Introduction, Blackwell Publishing, 2005, Google Print, p.5 ^ Wolfgang Justin Mommsen (1984). Max Weber and German Politics, 1890–1920. University of Chicago Press. p. 19. ISBN 0226533999.  ^ Marianne Weber. Last accessed on 18 September 2006. Based on Lengermann, P., & Niebrugge-Brantley, J.(1998). The Women Founders: Sociology and Social Theory 1830–1930. New York: McGraw-Hill. ^ Essays in Economic Sociology, Princeton University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-691-00906-6, Google Print, p.7 ^ a b c d e Bendix. Max Weber. p. 3. http://books.google.com/books?id=63sC9uaYqQsC&visbn=0520031946&pg=PA3&lpg=PA2&sig=ow6l2JcRLE_K1x4lws1fhNFlwWY.  ^ Guenther Roth: "History and sociology in the work of Max Weber", in: British Journal of Sociology, 27(3), 1979 ^ a b Essays in Economic Sociology, Princeton University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-691-00906-6, Google Print, p.22 ^ Iannaccone, Laurence (1998). "Introduction to the Economics of Religion". Journal of Economic Literature 36, 1465–1496. ^ a b c Wolfgang J. Mommsen, The Political and Social Theory of Max Weber, University of Chicago Press, 1992, ISBN 0-226-53400-6, Google Print, p.81, p. 60, [2] p. 327.] ^ a b Kaesler, Dirk (1989). Max Weber: An Introduction to His Life and Work. University of Chicago Press, p. 18. ISBN 0226425606 ^ Gerth, H.H. and C. Wright Mills (1948). From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. London: Routledge (UK), ISBN 0415175038 ^ Turner, Stephen (ed) (2000). The Cambridge Companion to Weber. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 142. ^ a b c William Petersen, Against the Stream, Transaction Publishers, ISBN 0-7658-0222-8, 2004, Google Print, p.24 ^ a b Peter R. Baehr, Founders Classics Canons, Transaction Publishers, 2002, ISBN 0-7658-0129-9, Google Print, p.22 ^ Radkau, Joachim Max Weber: A Biography. 1995. Polity Press. (Inside sleave) ^ a b John K. Rhoads, Critical Issues in Social Theory, Penn State Press, 1991, ISBN 0-271-00753-2, Google Print, p.40 ^ Roth, Guenther and Claus Wittich. 1978. Economy and Society: an outline of interpretive sociology. University of California Press, Google Print, p. xxxiii ^ "Methodological individualism," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, accessed 30 Jan. 2010 ^ Joan Ferrante, Sociology: A Global Perspective, Thomson Wadsworth, 2005, ISBN 0-495-00561-4, Google Print, p.21 ^ Weber, Max The Nature of Social Action in Runciman, W.G. 'Weber: Selections in Translation' Cambridge University Press, 1991. p7. ^ a b c Bendix. Max Weber. pp. 60–61. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0520031946&id=63sC9uaYqQsC&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&vq=Calvinism&sig=2VcBXYzS4AikEHxnscx0ArVRB_0.  ^ Andrew J. Weigert, Mixed Emotions: Certain Steps Toward Understanding Ambivalence, SUNY Press, 1991, ISBN 0-7914-0600-8, Google Print, p.110 ^ Fish, Jonathan S. 2005. 'Defending the Durkheimian Tradition. Religion, Emotion and Morality' Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. ^ Bendix. Max Weber. p. 285. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0520031946&id=63sC9uaYqQsC&pg=PA285&lpg=PA285&sig=VYtdrBYGinacJyetbio7RM3L0G0.  ^ a b c d Bendix. Max Weber. Chapter IX: Basic Concepts of Political Sociology. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0520031946&id=63sC9uaYqQsC&pg=PA285&lpg=PA285&sig=VYtdrBYGinacJyetbio7RM3L0G0.  ^ Weber The Protestant Ethic..., pp.15-16 ^ Bendix. Max Weber. p. 57. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0520031946&id=63sC9uaYqQsC&pg=PA57&lpg=PA57&vq=mundane+affairs&sig=VbBzIfyolsHTqPJ6ttJDIqYcQzE.  ^ Bendix. Max Weber. p. 54.  ^ Bendix. Max Weber. p. 49. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0520031946&id=63sC9uaYqQsC&pg=PA49&lpg=PA49&sig=5_6_YcPUQvbgsE5Qo2--jiKG13s.  ^ a b Bendix. Max Weber. pp. 98–99. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0520031946&id=63sC9uaYqQsC&pg=PA98&lpg=PA98&sig=t3xXCX62I1U32zKS6pMnahMoJds.  ^ Bendix. Max Weber. pp. 135–141. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0520031946&id=63sC9uaYqQsC&pg=PA135&lpg=PA135&sig=I03DzTNe5crq_k7DBQfuySrk5es.  ^ Bendix. Max Weber. pp. 142–158. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0520031946&id=63sC9uaYqQsC&pg=PA142&lpg=PA142&sig=qB7kMtwHdeX_SDZVw3dl3llByos.  ^ Bendix. Max Weber. p. 199. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0520031946&id=63sC9uaYqQsC&pg=PA199&lpg=PA199&sig=x4IgGFYFsyQIwLzt4UC7acO9Rpc.  ^ a b c Bendix. Max Weber. pp. 200–201. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0520031946&id=63sC9uaYqQsC&pg=PA200&lpg=PA200&sig=jY4jOrcK-AOz7Cd7jJT2bpVGP5E.  ^ Bendix. Max Weber. pp. 204–205. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0520031946&id=63sC9uaYqQsC&pg=PA204&lpg=PA204&sig=MUTQ-OsMDD2XoCtD0QKEgc5-vgk.  ^ Pawel Zaleski "Ideal Types in Max Weber’s Sociology of Religion: Some Theoretical Inspirations for a Study of the Religious Field", Polish Sociological Review No. 3(171)/2010 ^ Daniel Warner, An Ethic of Responsibility in International Relations, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1991, ISBN 1-55587-266-2, Google Print, p.9 ^ Randal Marlin, Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion, Broadview Press, 2002, ISBN 1-55111-376-7, Google Print.p155 ^ Wolfgang J. Mommsen, The Political and Social Theory of Max Weber: Collected Essays, University of Chicago Press, 1992, ISBN 0-226-53400-6, Google Print, p.46 ^ Bendix. Max Weber. p. 296. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0520031946&id=63sC9uaYqQsC&pg=PA296&lpg=PA296&sig=rgKDAVzqxPnxpRJchkceEbMkp1g.  ^ Bendix. Max Weber. pp. 303–305. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0415174538&id=C_j_2nOUIpcC&pg=PA303&lpg=PA303&sig=Q6Mr8eDZ9P0m68uGEcc3gUwGZjw.  ^ Marshall Sashkin, Leadership That Matters, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2002, ISBN 1-57675-193-7, Google Print, p.52 ^ George Ritzer, Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption, Pine Forge Press, 2004, ISBN 0-7619-8819-X, Google Print, p.55 ^ Erik H. Erikson, Childhood and Society, W. W. Norton & Company, 1963, p. 401. ISBN 039331068X. ^ a b c d e Max Weber, 1864–1920 at the New School for Social Research ^ a b Bendix. Max Weber. pp. 85–87. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0520031946&id=63sC9uaYqQsC&pg=PA85&lpg=PA85&sig=m2qBtfP7dnRGf-y5JS1t-yvrJPo.  ^ Max Weber, Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich, eds. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), vol. I, pp. 100–03. ^ Max Weber, Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich, eds. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), vol. I, pp. 100–03. ^ Schumpeter, Joseph: "History of Economic Analysis", Oxford University Press, 1954 ^ Rothbard, Muarry N.: "Economic Thought Before Adam Smith", Ludwig von Mises Press, 1995, pp. 142 ^ Evans, Eric J.: "The Forging of the Modern State: Early Industrial Britain, 1783-1870", Longman, 1983, pp. 114, ISBN 0-5824-8969-5. ^ Kauder, Emil: "The Retarded Acceptance of the Marginal Utility Theory", Quarterly Journal of Economics 67(4), 1953 Further reading Ankerl, Guy (1972), Sociologues allemands. Avec le dictionnaire de "l'Ethique protestante et l'esprit du capitalisme" de Max Weber, Neuchâtel: A la Baconnière. Green, Robert (1959) (ed.), Problems in European Civilization, Protestantism and Capitalism: The Weber Thesis and Its Critics, Boston: Heath. Haidenko, Piama; Translated by H. Campbell Creighton, M.A. (Oxon) (1989) "The Sociology of Max Weber" in Kon, Igor (DOC, DjVu) A History of Classical Sociology Moscow: Progress Publishers pp. 255-311 ISBN 5-01-001102-6 http://su-ltd.mylivepage.ru/file/2715/6547_Kon_History_of_Classical_Sociology.zip  Korotayev, Andrey; Malkov, A.; Khaltourina, D. (2006) "Chapter 6: Reconsidering Weber: Literacy and "the Spirit of Capitalism"" (Google Books) Introduction to Social Macrodynamics Moscow: URSS ISBN 5-484-00414-4 http://books.google.com/books?id=tyoryrjrzUMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=isbn:5484004144&hl=ru&ei=6UpITYb8BoaZOvyaydAE&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false  Mitzman, Arthur (1970/1985), The Iron Cage: An Historical Interpretation of Max Weber, New Brunswick NJ: Transaction Books, ISBN 0878559841. Quensel, Bernhard K. (2007), Max Webers Konstruktionslogik. Sozialökonomik zwischen Geschichte und Theorie, Nomos, ISBN 9783832925178 [Revisiting Weber's concept of sociology against the background of his juristic and economic provenance within the framework of "social economics"] Radkau, Joachim (2005), Max Weber [The most important Weber biography on Max Weber's life and torments since Marianne Weber.] Ritzer, George (1996) (ed). "Sociological Theory" (Fourth Edition). Max Weber, Chapter 4, Pages:109-154. New York: McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-114660-1 Roth, Guenther (2001), Max Webers deutsch-englische Familiengeschichte, J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), ISBN 3-16-147557-7. Shils, Edward and Rheinstein, Max. (1964) Max Weber Law in Economy and Society, ,Cambridge: Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-55651-8; ISBN 0674556518; ISBN 9780674556515. Stapelfeldt Gerhard (2004) Kritik der ökonomischen Rationalität. Swatos, William H. (1990) (ed.). Time, Place, and Circumstance: Neo-Weberian Studies in Comparative Religious History. New York: Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-313-26892-4. Swedberg, Richard. (1998), Max Weber and the Idea of Economic Sociology, Princeton: Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-07013-X Swedberg, Richard. (1999). "Max Weber as an Economist and as a Sociologist", American Journal of Economics and Sociology, October 1999. Weber, Marianne (1926/1988), Max Weber: A Biography, New Brunswick: Transaction Books, ISBN 0-471-92333-8. External links Find more about Max Weber on Wikipedia's sister projects: Definitions from Wiktionary Images and media from Commons Learning resources from Wikiversity News stories from Wikinews Quotations from Wikiquote Source texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks

Texts of his works: Large collection of the German original texts Large collection of the German original texts Large collection of English translations Another collection of English translations A comprehensive collection of English translations and secondary literature Notes on several of Weber's works, merged into one text file Max Weber Reference Archive Analysis of his works: Protestant Ethic Thesis by the Swatos' Encyclopedia of Religion and Society v · d · eClassical economists Francis Hutcheson · Bernard Mandeville · David Hume · Adam Smith · Jean-Baptiste Say · Thomas Malthus · James Mill · Francis Place · David Ricardo · Henry Thornton · John Ramsay McCulloch · James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale · Jeremy Bentham · Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi · Johann Heinrich von Thünen · John Stuart Mill · Henry Charles Carey · Nassau William Senior · Edward Gibbon Wakefield · John Rae · Frédéric Bastiat · Thomas Tooke · Robert Torrens Persondata Name Weber, Maximilian Alternative names Weber, Max Short description Founder of modern sociology Date of birth 21 April 1864(1864-04-21) Place of birth Erfurt, Germany Date of death 14 June 1920(1920-06-14) Place of death Munich, Germany

Texts of his works: Large collection of the German original texts Large collection of the German original texts Large collection of English translations Another collection of English translations A comprehensive collection of English translations and secondary literature Notes on several of Weber's works, merged into one text file Max Weber Reference Archive Analysis of his works: Protestant Ethic Thesis by the Swatos' Encyclopedia of Religion and Society v · d · eClassical economists Francis Hutcheson · Bernard Mandeville · David Hume · Adam Smith · Jean-Baptiste Say · Thomas Malthus · James Mill · Francis Place · David Ricardo · Henry Thornton · John Ramsay McCulloch · James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale · Jeremy Bentham · Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi · Johann Heinrich von Thünen · John Stuart Mill · Henry Charles Carey · Nassau William Senior · Edward Gibbon Wakefield · John Rae · Frédéric Bastiat · Thomas Tooke · Robert Torrens Persondata Name Weber, Maximilian Alternative names Weber, Max Short description Founder of modern sociology Date of birth 21 April 1864(1864-04-21) Place of birth Erfurt, Germany Date of death 14 June 1920(1920-06-14) Place of death Munich, Germany

Texts of his works: Large collection of the German original texts Large collection of the German original texts Large collection of English translations Another collection of English translations A comprehensive collection of English translations and secondary literature Notes on several of Weber's works, merged into one text file Max Weber Reference Archive Analysis of his works: Protestant Ethic Thesis by the Swatos' Encyclopedia of Religion and Society v · d · eClassical economists Francis Hutcheson · Bernard Mandeville · David Hume · Adam Smith · Jean-Baptiste Say · Thomas Malthus · James Mill · Francis Place · David Ricardo · Henry Thornton · John Ramsay McCulloch · James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale · Jeremy Bentham · Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi · Johann Heinrich von Thünen · John Stuart Mill · Henry Charles Carey · Nassau William Senior · Edward Gibbon Wakefield · John Rae · Frédéric Bastiat · Thomas Tooke · Robert Torrens Persondata Name Weber, Maximilian Alternative names Weber, Max Short description Founder of modern sociology Date of birth 21 April 1864(1864-04-21) Place of birth Erfurt, Germany Date of death 14 June 1920(1920-06-14) Place of death Munich, Germany