Max Weber

Dr Upasana Borthakur
 Max Weber (1864-
1920)
Max Weber was born in Western Germany in
April 2, 1864.
He was also concerned with the changes taking
place in the western societies with the advent
of industrialization.
Like Marx and Durkheim, he feared that
industrialization would have negative effects on
individuals.
He laid the foundation of the interpretative
approach to understand society.
 His methodology
• Max Weber conceives sociology as a comprehensive science of social action. He focusses on the subjective meanings
that social actors attach to their actions and interactions.
• Weber believed that it was impossible to use use standard scientific methods to accurately predict the behaviour of
groups or individuals. He thus charts out a special subject matter and special methods of inquiry for social sciences.
• He draws the subject matter of sociology from idealists.
• Weber introduced the concept of verstehen, a German word that means to understand in a deep way.
• Weber described sociology as the science which attempts the interpretative understanding of social action.
• Sociology must use the method of verstehen or interpretative understanding.
• Verstehen implies that the sociologist should try to interpret the feelings of the actors to understand any social
situation by reconstructing his choices and constrains. The researcher should have detached interest in the actor and
his situation to ensure objectivity.
• The next step of analysis is causal explanation or searching for the causes or reasons behind the occurrence of any
social phenomena.
• But as human society is so complex single or absolute causes to explain phenomena cannot be given and thus he
spoke of plurality of causes. He also uses the method of comparative historical analysis.
• According to Weber, values play an important role in sociology but as a researcher one should not pass value
judgements on the research conducted. The researcher must observe ethical neutrality.
• In order to facilitate sociological analysis, Weber develops an important methodological tool known as ideal types.
 Ideal Types
• Ideal type is a mental construct, like a model, for the scrutiny and systematic characterisation of a
concrete situation. Weber used ideal type as a methodological tool to understand and analyse social
reality.
• The ideal types are useful in doing empirical research and in understanding a specific aspect of the
social world.
• Weber says that the function of ideal types is the comparison with empirical reality in order to
establish its divergencies or similarities and to understand and explain them causally.
• Max Weber was particularly concerned with the problem of objectivity in social sciences. Hence he
used ideal type as a methodological tool that looks at reality objectively.
• It scrutinises, classifies, systematises and defines social reality without subjective bias. The ideal type
has nothing to do with values. Its function, as a research tool, is for classification and comparison.
• The ideal types refers to creating a kind of model which includes the most prominent characteristics of
the phenomena to be studied.
• Ideal types are constructed by the abstraction and combination of an indefinite number of elements,
which though found in reality, are rarely or never discovered in specific form.
• Weber has used the ideal types and has constructed ideal types of capitalism, bureaucracy, authority
and social action.
 Social Action
• To Weber, sociology is the subjective understanding of social action.
• Weber focuses on the individual and his action. He identified that it is
the ‘social action’ of an individual is the proper subject matter of
Social Science and Sociology.
• Social action is defined in terms of meanings that the actor attach to
their actions. The meanings are subjective in nature as it is the actors
interpretation of his/her action.
• Weber regarded ‘verstehen’ (understanding at the level of meaning)
and ‘Ideal Types’ as effective methods to study Social Action.
 Characteristics of social action
• Social action is motivated by purpose and will. It is meaningful behaviour.  
• When any behaviour is related to some intended purpose, it is termed an action. But,
every action is not ‘social’. Only those actions qualify as ‘social’ that take into account the
behaviour of others. When the action of an individual is somehow influenced or guided by
the actions or behaviour of other individuals, it is called social action. For example, a
solitary prayer is not social.
• Not every type of contact of human beings has a social character. For example, the mere
collision of two cyclists on the road is not a social action, but a natural action. But, it would
be social action if the cyclists tried to avoid hitting each other, or if they argued after the
collision. The mere presence of another actor in a situation does not lead to social action.
There must be interaction between them. Social action takes the form of interaction.
• Social action is not identical with the similar actions of many persons. For example, when it
rains almost all the people on the road would run for cover or would put up their
umbrellas. Besides, many a time in a crowd, a person usually does what others in the
crowd do. This is not social action because it is not the result of any motive or intention.
 Types of Social Action
• By using the Ideal-type methodology, Weber distinguished four ‘Ideal Types’ of social action:
Affectual action, Traditional action, Wert rational (value-rational) action, and Zweck rational
(instrumental/ end-rational) action.
• 1. Affectual Action: The type of action carried out in a fit of emotion or if it is dictated by the state
of mind is affective action. For example, a punch or a slap.
• 2. Traditional Action: It is an action dictated by customs and overtime by habits become second
nature. This type of action is on account of a habituated stimuli which guide behaviour. Majority of
actions fall under this category. For example, ritualistic actions carried out in places of worship.
• 3. Value Rational Action: This type of action is rationally oriented to an absolute value. It involves a
conscious belief in the absolute value of some ethical, aesthetic, religious or other form of
behaviour. For example, for a soldier, patriotism is the ultimate value and he may give up his life
for it. Here nothing matters but the service of the value, not even the issues of personal success or
failure in other dimensions of life.
• 4. Purposely rational action: It is the most rational action as it is oriented towards a goal. The
individual rationally accesses the probable results of a given act in terms of calculation of means
to an end. The individual judges the alternatives and chooses the most effective one.
• Thus, sociological analysis should involve the exploration and analysis
(interpretation) of the subjective meaning of social actions. This is
what Weber meant by “Subjective understanding of actions”. He
termed this as “Verstehen”, which comprises his key methodological
concept. Herein, the researcher should understand the meaning of the
action from the viewpoint of the actor.
• Weber is claimed to be the founder of “Interpretive Sociology”. The
subjective understanding of social action as a component of
sociological analysis is an innovation of Weber.
• He proposed a philosophy of Anti positivism whereby social
researchers would strive for subjectivity as they worked to represent
social processes, cultural norms, and societal values. This approach led
to some research methods whose aim was not to generalize or
predict, but to systematically gain an in-depth understanding of social
worlds.
Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism
• The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-1905) was one of the best
known work of Max Weber.
• In this book he traced the impact of ascetic Protestantism primarily Calvism on the rise
of the spirit of capitalism.
• This book is but a small part of a larger body of scholarship that traces the relationship
between religion and modern rational capitalism throughout much of the world.
• The concept spirit of capitalism is used in a specific sense which refers to the nature of
capitalism in Western Europe and America. What characterizes capitalism is the
consumption of desire for profit and rational discipline.
• In the West, rationalistic capitalistic activity came to be associated with the existence
of disciplined labour force and regularized investment of capital, allocation of
functions based on market economy and bureaucratic rationalization.
• Weber was interested in reasons behind the rise of such a rationalistic spirit.
• Thus, Protestant Ethic is not about the rise of modern capitalism but is
about the origin of a peculiar spirit that eventually made modern rational
capitalism.
• Weber began by rejecting the alternative explanations of why capitalism
arose in the West in the 16th and 17th centuries.
• To those who contended that capitalism arose because the material
conditions were right at that time, Weber retorted that material conditions
were also ripe at other times and capitalism did not arise.
• Weber also rejected the psychological theory that the development of
capitalism was due simply to the acquisitive instinct.
• In Weber’s view, the spirit of capitalism is not defined simply by economic
greed but it is in many ways the exact opposite. It is a moral and ethical
system, an ethos that, among other things, stresses economic success.
• However, Protestantism succeeded in turning the pursuit of profit into
moral crusade.
Spirit of capitalism
• The spirit of capitalism included the ideas such as
• Time is money
• Be industrious
• Be frugal
• Be punctual
• Be fair
• Earning money is a legitimate end in itself.
• Above all, there is the idea that it is people’s duty to increase their
wealth ceaselessly.
 Calvinism
• Calvinism was the version of Protestantism that interested Weber much.
• One feature of Calvism was the idea that only a small number of people are chosen for salvation.
• In addition, Calvinism entailed the idea of predestination; people were predestined to be either
among the saved or among the damned. There was nothing that the individual or the religion as
a whole could do to affect that fate.
• Yet, the idea of predestination. Left people uncertain about whether they were among the saved.
• To reduce this uncertainty, the Calvinists developed the idea that signs could be used as
indicators of whether a person was saved.
• People were urged to work hard, because if they were diligent, they would uncover the signs of
salvation, which were to be found in economic success. In sum, the Calvinists were urged to
engage in intense, worldly activity and to become a man of vocation.
• Calvinism as an ethic required self control and systematized style of life that involved an
integrated round of activities, particularly business activities.
 Features of Calvism
• As already mentioned, capitalists could ruthlessly pursue their economic interests and feel that such
pursuit was not merely self-interest but was, in fact, their ethical duty.
• Calvinism provided the rising capitalist with sober, conscientious and usually industrious workmen who
clung to their work as to a life purpose willed by God.
• Calvinism legitimized an unequal stratification system by giving the capitalist the comforting assurances
that the unequal distribution of the goods of this world was a special dispensation of Divine Providence.
• There is the doctrine of predestination in Calvinism as the destiny is decided from before.
• Calvinism believes in the doctrine of this worldly or innerworldy ascetism which involves hard work and
no hedonistic pleasures involved.
• All work is considered sacred in Calvinism and work is not mere work but it is a calling or mission done in
the glory of God.
• Calvinist did not believe in any mediation of any priest who can help us know God. Wealth has to be
conserved and devoted to God.
• Calvinism was one of the causal factors in the rise of capitalism in the West.
• Thus the study of Protestant Ethic is a contribution to the understanding of manner in which ideas
become effective forces in history which are directed against economic determinism.
 Weber’s comparative studies on religion
• Weber has studied the religion of Confucianism in Ancient China, Hinduism in ancient India and Judaism in ancient
Palestine.
• Ancient China had a well-developed economy in which trade, commerce, finance and manufacture were quite
advanced.
• But the Confucian ethics did not led to the emergence of the western style of capitalism. The Confucian ethics
believed in harmony, traditionalism, family obligations which were quite opposed to the relentless pursuit of profit.
• Judaism is followed by the Jews and they believe that they were the chosen ones of God and must help to establish
God’s kingdom on Earth. Judaism could have generated the spirit of capitalism but certain historical forces
prevented this. The exodus of mass migration of the Jews from their homeland due to persecution left them
scattered all over the world.
• While studying the religion of India, Weber expressed a strict negative attitude towards the possibility of rational
capitalism within the ethos of Hinduism. But Hinduism, says Weber, did not provide a suitable ethic for the
development of capitalism. The ideas of “Karma”, “dharma” and “punarjanma” (the cycle of births and rebirths)
made Indians defeatists, fatalists.
• Hinduism preaches “other-worldly asceticism”. The material world is de-emphasised. Material prosperity is not
given importance, as it is temporary and illusory.
• Religions that place more stress on otherworldly asceticism and de- emphasise the material world can hardly foster
attitudes that promote capitalism.