Max Weber

Introduction Max Weber is one of the three philosophers best able to explain to us the peculiar economic system we live within called Capitalism (Karl Marx and Adam Smith are the other two). Born in Erfurt in Germany in 1864, Weber grew up to see his country convulsed by the dramatic changes ushered in by the Industrial Revolution.

Cities were exploding in size, vast companies were forming, a new managerial elite was replacing the old aristocracy.

Why does Capitalism exist? Capitalism might feel normal or inevitable to us but, of course, it isn’t. It came into existence only relatively recently, in historical terms, and has successfully taken root in just a limited number of countries.

The standard view is that Capitalism is the result of developments in technology (particularly, the invention of steam power). So to help poor countries – give them money and technology

But Weber proposed that what made Capitalism possible was a set of ideas, not scientific discoveries – and in particular religious ideas. Religion made Capitalism happen. Not just any religion; a very particular, non-Catholic kind of the sort that flourished in Northern Europe where Capitalism was – and continues to be – particularly vigorous. Capitalism was created by Protestantism, specifically Calvinism, as developed by John Calvin in Geneva and by his followers in England, the Puritans.

In his great work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, published in 1905, Weber laid out some of the reasons why he believed Protestant Christianity had been so crucial to Capitalism: Protestantism makes you feel guilty all the time: God likes hard work All work is holy There aren’t miracles

In this analysis, Weber was in direct disagreement with Karl Marx, for Marx had proposed a materialist view of Capitalism (where technology was said to have created a new capitalist social system), whereas Weber now advanced an idealist one (suggesting that it was in fact a set of ideas that had created Capitalism and given the impetus for its newfound technological and financial arrangements).

Anti-positivism Weber conceived sociology as a comprehensive science of social action. His primary focus was on social meanings that human actors attach to their actions. Thus, the influence of culture on human behavior had to be taken into account. Weber defined sociology as an interpretive understanding of social action.

In 1948, Weber, an ‘Interactionist’, stated that complete value-freedom or scientific objectivity is not possible within sociology. Anti-positivism- whereby social researchers would strive for subjectivity as they worked to represent social processes, cultural norms, and social values. The aim was to gain in-depth understanding of social worlds.