Person
Max Weber
German sociologist and economist (1864–1920); known for Verstehen, the ideal type, rationalization and the types of legitimate domination; in 1910 he proposed a survey on the sociology of the press.
Biography
Max Weber was born in Erfurt on 21 April 1864 and died in 1920. His father was a lawyer and politician. He trained in law and economics; he received his first university appointment at Freiburg in 1894 and two years later a professorship at Heidelberg. His health did not allow him to hold a permanent academic post for long.
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy his two most celebrated contributions are the “rationalization thesis” and the “Protestant Ethic thesis”; The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism appeared in 1904–05. In methodology he defended interpreting action through its meaning (Verstehen) and constructing ideal types by one-sided accentuation of reality. In political sociology he distinguished three types of legitimate domination: traditional, charismatic and legal-rational. Economy and Society was published after his death.
Weber took part in founding the German Sociological Society together with Tönnies and Simmel. At its first congress in 1910 he proposed a “sociology of the press” as its first research topic; the project was abandoned in 1911.
In this course
Appears in Roots of Social Thought in the cards on Verstehen, the ideal type, types of domination, rationalization and the 1910 press plan.
Key works
- Weber, Max (1947 [1922]). The theory of social and economic organization. New York: Free Press of Glencoe. — Types of domination (Herrschaft); see the deep card for the translation note.
- Weber, Max (1910). Geschäftsbericht (speech at the First German Sociological Congress, Frankfurt am Main, October 1910). . http://www.zeno.org/Soziologie/M/Weber,+Max/Schriften+zur+Soziologie+und+Sozialpolitik/Gesch%C3%A4ftsbericht+und+Diskussionsreden+auf+dem+ersten+Deutschen+Soziologentage+in+Frankfurt+1910/Gesch%C3%A4ftsbericht — The 1910 proposal for a press survey.