yuèdòumǎ kè sī · wéi bó Max Weberzài百家争鸣dezuòpǐn!!! | |||
wéi bó de zhù yào zhù zuò wéi rào yú shè huì xué de zōng jiào hé zhèng zhì yán jiū lǐng yù shàng， dàn tā yě duì jīng jì xué lǐng yù zuò chū jí dà de gòng xiàn。 tā de zhī míng zhù zuò《 xīn jiào lún lǐ yǔ zī běn zhù yì jīng shén》 shì tā duì zōng jiào shè huì xué zuì chū de yán jiū， wéi bó zài zhè běn shū zhōng zhù zhāng， zōng jiào de yǐng xiǎng shì zào chéng dōng xī fāng wén huà fā zhǎn chā jù de zhù yào yuán yīn， bìng qiě qiáng diào xīn jiào lún lǐ zài zī běn zhù yì、 guān liáo zhì dù、 hé fǎ lǜ quán wēi de fā zhǎn shàng suǒ bàn yǎn de zhòng yào juésè， rán 'ér jìn dài zhù míng shè huì xué jiā 'ān dōng ní · jì dēng sī zhǐ chū wéi bó bìng wèi tí chū zú gòu de zhèng jù shí lì zhèng míng xīn jiào lún lǐ yǔ zī běn zhù yì fā zhǎn yòu guān， xǔ duō bù yǐ jī dū jiào wéi zhù yào xìn yǎng de guó jiā jīng jì fā zhǎn yī yàng hěn chū sè。 wéi bó bìng jiāng guó jiā dìng yì wéi yī gè “ yōng yòu hé fǎ shǐ yòng bào lì de lǒng duàn dì wèi ” de shí tǐ， zhè gè dìng yì duì yú xī fāng xiàn dài zhèng zhì xué de fā zhǎn yǐng xiǎng jí dà。 tā zài gè zhǒng xué shù shàng de zhòng yào gòng xiàn tōng cháng bèi tōng chēng wéi“ wéi bó mìng tí”。
shēng yá wéi bó shēng yú dé guó tú lín gēn de 'āi 'ěr fú tè， tā shì jiā zhōng de zhǎngzǐ， fù qīn shì yī míng zhī míng de zhèng zhì jiā hé gōng wù yuán。 fù qīn de zhí yè shǐ jiā lǐ chōng mǎn liǎo zhèng zhì de qì fēn， xǔ duō tū chū de xué zhě hé gōng zhòng rén wù dū jīng cháng zào fǎng jiā zhōng。
shòu dào jiā tíng huán jìng de 'ěr rú mù rǎn， wéi bó de dì dì 'ā 'ěr fú léi dé · wéi bó（ AlfredWeber） hòu lái yě chéng wéi liǎo yī míng shè huì xué jiā hé jīng jì xué jiā。 zài 1876 nián de shèng dàn jié， nián jǐn shí sān suì de mǎ kè sī · wéi bó zhuàn xiě liǎo liǎng piān lì shǐ lùn wén sòng gěi fù mǔ， biāo tí fēn bié wéi“ lùn dé guó lì shǐ de fā zhǎn yǐ jí huáng dì hé jiào zōng de juésè” yǐ jí“ lùn luó mǎ dì guó cóng jūn shì tǎn dīng zhì mín zú qiān xǐ yùn dòng de lì shǐ”。 zài shí sì suì shí， wéi bó xiě de xìn jiàn biàn kāi shǐ yǐn yòng hé mǎ、 xī sài luó、 wéi jí 'ěr、 lǐ wéi děng rén de zhù zuò， zài tā jìn rù dà xué qián yě yǐ jīng shú dú liǎo gē dé、 sī bīn nuò suō、 kāng dé、 shū běn huá děng rén de lǐ lùn。 nián qīng de wéi bó biǎo xiàn chū tā duì yán jiū shè huì kē xué de qiáng liè xīng qù。
mǎ kè sī · wéi bó hé tā de dì dì 'ā fú léi dé hé kǎ 'ěr， 1879 nián。 zài 1882 nián wéi bó jìn rù liǎo hǎi dé bǎo dà xué de fǎ lǜ xì jiù dú。 rú tóng tā fù qīn yī yàng， wéi bó xuǎn zé yǐ fǎ lǜ zuò wéi zhù yào xué xí lǐng yù， bìng qiě yě jiā rù liǎo tā fù qīn jiù dú dà xué shí de tóng yàng shè tuán。 chú liǎo fǎ lǜ de xué xí wài， nián qīng de wéi bó yě xué xí liǎo jīng jì xué、 zhōng shì jì lì shǐ、 shén xué。 tā yě zài sī tè lā sī bǎo jiā rù dé yì zhì dì guó jūn fú yì liǎo yī xiǎo duàn shí jiān。
zài 1884 nián de qiū tiān， wéi bó huí dào lǎo jiā yǐ jiù dú bólín hóng bǎo dà xué， zài jiē xià lái 8 nián lǐ chú liǎo céng zhì gē tíng gēn dà xué jiù dú yī gè xué qī bìng qiě yòu fú liǎo duǎn qī de bīng yì wài， wéi bó dū yī zhí dài zài bólín yán jiū shēn zào。 wéi bó yǔ shuāng qīn zhù zài yī qǐ， chú liǎo jì xù xué yè wài， wéi bó yě dān rèn shí xí lǜ shī， zuì hòu zé zài bólín dà xué dān rèn jiǎng shī。 wéi bó zài 1886 nián tōng guò liǎo lǜ shī“ shí xí jiē duàn”（ Referendar） de cè yàn， chéng wéi shí xí fǎ guān。 zài 1880 nián dài de hòu qī wéi bó jì xù tā duì lì shǐ de yán jiū。 tā zài 1889 nián wán chéng liǎo yī piān biāo tí wéi“ zhōng shì jì shāng yè zǔ zhì de lì shǐ” de bó shì lùn wén， qǔ dé liǎo tā de fǎ lǜ bó shì xué wèi。 liǎng nián hòu， wéi bó xiě xià liǎo yī běn míng wéi“ luó mǎ de nóng yè lì shǐ hé qí duì gōng gòng fǎ jí sī fǎ de zhòng yào xìng” de shū， wán chéng liǎo tā de jiào shòu zī gé cè yàn（ Habilitation）， wéi bó yě yīn cǐ chéng wéi zhèng shì de dà xué jiào shòu。
zài wéi bó jí jiāng wán chéng bó shì lùn wén de nà yī nián lǐ， wéi bó yě kāi shǐ duì dāng shí de shè huì zhèng cè chǎn shēng xīng qù。 zài 1888 nián tā jiā rù liǎo yī gè míng wéi“ shè huì zhèng zhì lián méng”（ VereinfürSocialpolitik） de tuán tǐ， zhè gè zhuān yè tuán tǐ chéng yuán dà duō shì dāng shí lì shǔ jīng jì lì shǐ xué pài de dé guó jīng jì xué jiā， tā men jiāng jīng jì shì wéi shì jiě jué dāng shí guǎng fàn shè huì wèn tí de zhù yào fāng fǎ， bìng qiě duì dāng shí de dé guó jīng jì zhǎn kāi dà guī mó de tǒng jì yán jiū。 zài 1890 nián lián méng chéng lì liǎo yī gè zhuān mén de yán jiū jìhuà， yǐ jiǎn yàn dāng shí rì qū yán zhòng de dōng bù yí mín wèn tí（ Ostflucht）： yóu yú dāng shí dé guó láo gōng zhú jiàn qiān wǎng kuài sù gōng yè huà de dé guó chéng shì， dà liàng wài guó láo gōng qiān xǐ zhì dé guó dōng bù de nóng cūn dì qū。 wéi bó fù zé zhè cì yán jiū， bìng qiě xiě xià liǎo xǔ duō diào chá jiēguǒ。 zuì hòu de bào gào dé dào liáng hǎo píng jià， bèi guǎng fàn rèn wéi shì yī piān jié chū de guān chá yán jiū， zhè yě yīn cǐ gǒng gù liǎo wéi bó shēn wéi nóng yè jīng jì zhuān jiā de míng shēng。
wéi bó de qī zǐ mǎ lì 'ān nī · shī ní tè gé 'ěr。 zài 1893 nián wéi bó yǔ yī míng yuǎn qīn de biǎo mèi mǎ lì 'ān nà · shī ní tè gé 'ěr（ MarianneSchnitger） jié hūn， tā hòu lái yě chéng wéi liǎo yī míng nǚ xìng zhù yì zhě hé zuò jiā。 xīn hūn de liǎng rén zài 1894 nián bān jiā zhì fú lāi bǎo， wéi bó zài nà lǐ huò pìn wéi fú lāi bǎo dà xué de jīng jì xué jiào shòu。 1896 nián wéi bó yě bèi huò pìn wéi qí mǔ xiào hǎi dé bǎo dà xué de jiào shòu。 yī nián hòu wéi bó de fù qīn qù shì liǎo， zài tā sǐ qián liǎng gè yuè fù zǐ jiān gāng qiǎo jīng lì liǎo yīcháng jī liè de zhēng chǎo， zhè chǎng méi yòu hé jiě de zhēng chǎo chéng wéi wéi bó bì shēng de yí hàn。 zài nà zhī hòu wéi bó huàn shàng liǎo shī mián zhèng， gè xìng yě biàn de yuè lái yuè shén jīng zhì， shǐ tā yuè lái yuè nán yǐ shèng rèn jiào shòu de gōng zuò。 tā de jīng shén zhuàng kuàng shǐ tā bù dé bù jiǎn shǎo jiào xué liàng， bìng qiě zài 1899 nián de xué qī zhōng tú xiūjià lí kāi。 wéi bó zài 1900 nián de xià jì hé qiū jì yú jīng shén liáo yǎng yuàn xiū xī liǎo shù gè yuè de shí jiān， jiē zhe zài nián dǐ hé qī zǐ qián wǎng yì dà lì lǚ yóu， yī zhí dào 1902 nián de 4 yuè cái fǎn huí hǎi dé bǎo。
zài 1890 nián dài chū qī zhù zuò pín fán de jǐ nián hòu， wéi bó zài 1898 nián zhí zhì 1902 nián dǐ dōuméi yòu zài fā biǎo rèn hé zhù zuò， zuì hòu zhōng yú zài 1903 nián qiū jì cí qù liǎo jiào shòu de zhí wèi。 zài bǎi tuō liǎo xué xiào de shù fù hòu， wéi bó zài nà yī nián yǔ tā de tóng shì wéi 'ěr nà · sōng bā tè（ WernerSombart） chuàng bàn liǎo yī běn míng wéi“ shè huì xué hé shè huì fú lì dàng 'àn” de shè huì xué qī kān， yóu wéi bó dān rèn fù biān ji。 zài 1904 nián， wéi bó kāi shǐ yú zhè běn qī kān fā biǎo yī xiē tā zuì zhòng yào de wén zhāng， yóu qí shì yī xì liè míng wéi《 xīn jiào lún lǐ yǔ zī běn zhù yì jīng shén》 de lùn wén， zhè hòu lái chéng wèitā bì shēng zuì zhī míng de zhù zuò， bìng qiě yě tì tā hòu lái xǔ duō zhēn duì wén huà hé zōng jiào duì jīng jì tǐ xì de yǐng xiǎng de yán jiū diàn dìng gēn jī。 zhè piān lùn wén shì wéi yī yī piān tā zài shì shí biàn yǐ chū bǎn chéng shū de zhù zuò。 yě shì zài nà nián， wéi bó qián wǎng měi guó lǚ yóu， bìng qiě cānyù liǎo dāng shí zài shèng lù yì sī suǒ jǔ xíng de shè huì hé kē xué dà huì héng nà yě shì shì jiè bó lǎn huì xiāng guān de dà huì zhī yī。 jìn guǎn wéi bó biǎo xiàn de yuè lái yuè chéng gōng， tā réng jué dé zì jǐ wú fǎ zài shèng rèn gù dìng de jiào xué gōng zuò， yīn cǐ jì xù wéi chí zhe sī rén xué zhě de shēnfèn。 1907 nián wéi bó huò dé yī bǐ kě guān de yí chǎn， yě shǐ tā dé yǐ jì xù zhuān xīn yán jiū wú xū dān yōu jīng jì wèn tí。 zài 1912 nián， wéi bó shì zhe zǔ zhì yī gè zuǒ yì de zhèng dǎng yǐ jié hé shè huì mín zhù zhù yì zhě hé zì yóu zhù yì zhě， zuì hòu bìng méi yòu chéng gōng， zhù yào shì yīn wéi dāng shí de zì yóu zhù yì zhě réng dān yōu shè huì mín zhù zhù yì de gé mìng lǐ niàn。
mǎ kè sī · wéi bó， 1917 nián。 zài dì yī cì shì jiè dà zhàn lǐ， wéi bó zài hǎi dé bǎo de yī jiān lù jūn yī yuàn dān rèn liǎo yī duàn shí jiān de yuàn cháng。 zài 1915 nián hé 1916 nián tā chū rèn yī gè zhèng fǔ de wěi yuán huì， shì tú bǎo chí dé guó zài zhàn hòu yú bǐ lì shí hé bō lán de zhù quán。 wéi bó gè rén duì dì yī cì shì jiè dà zhàn、 yǐ jí dāng shí dé guó dì guó kuò zhāng de kàn fǎ zé suí zhe zhàn jú de měi kuàng yù xià 'ér gǎi biàn。 wéi bó zài 1918 nián chéng wéi hǎi dé bǎo de láo gōng hé shì bīng wěi yuán huì de chéng yuán zhī yī。 zài 1918 nián wéi bó chéng wéi dé guó xiū zhàn wěi yuán huì de yī míng chéng yuán， qián wǎng fán 'ěr sài huì yì dài biǎo dé guó tán pàn， bìng qiě yě cānyù liǎo wèi mǎ gòng hé guó xiàn fǎ de qǐ cǎo wěi yuán huì。 dāng shí wéi bó zhī chí zài xiàn fǎ zhōng jiā rù shòu quán jǐn jí jiè yán de dì 48 hào tiáo kuǎn， zhè gè tiáo kuǎn hòu lái yóu yú bèi 'ā dào fū · xī tè lè yòng yú jiàn lì dú cái tǒng zhì 'ér 'è míng zhāo zhāng。 wéi bó duì yú dé guó zhèng zhì de yǐng xiǎng， zhì jīn réng yòu zhēng yì。
wéi bó zài zhè shí kāi shǐ zhòng zhǎng jiào zhí， shǒu xiān shì zài wéi yě nà dà xué， jiē zhe shì zài 1919 nián yú mù ní hēi dà xué。 zài mù ní hēi dà xué， tā jiàn lì liǎo dì yī suǒ dé guó dà xué de shè huì xué xué xì， dàn zuì hòu cóng méi yòu qīn zì dān rèn shè huì xué de jiào zhí。 yóu yú dé guó yòu pài zài 1919 nián hé 1920 nián xiān qǐ de dòng dàng， wéi bó lí kāi liǎo zhèng zhì jiè。 dāng shí xǔ duō mù ní hēi dà xué de tóng liáo hé xué shēng pī píng tā zài 1918 nián hé 1919 nián de dé guó gé mìng zhōng de qīn zuǒ pài tài dù hé yǎn jiǎng， yī xiē yòu pài de xué shēng hái zài tā zhù jiā qián kàng yì。 wéi bó zài 1920 nián 6 yuè 14 rì yīn fèi yán sǐ yú mù ní hēi。
xué shù chéng jiù mǎ kè sī · wéi bó yǔ kǎ 'ěr · mǎ kè sī hé 'āi mǐ 'ěr · tú 'ěr gān bèi bìng liè wéi xiàn dài shè huì xué de sān dà diàn jī rén， jìn guǎn tā zài dāng shí zhù yào bèi shì wéi shì lì shǐ xué jiā hé jīng jì xué jiā。 tú 'ěr gān（ dù 'ěr kǎi mǔ） zūn xún zhe kǒng dé de fāng shì， yǐ shè huì xué de shí zhèng zhù yì yán jiū。 ér wéi bó yǐ jí tā de tóng liáo wéi 'ěr nà · sōng bā tè（ yě shì dé guó shè huì xué zuì zhī míng de dài biǎo rén wù） cǎi nà de zé shì fǎn shí zhèng zhù yì de lù xiàn， zhè xiē zhù zuò kāi shǐ liǎo fǎn shí zhèng zhù yì zài shè huì kē xué jiè de gé mìng， qiáng diào shè huì kē xué yǔ zì rán kē xué zài běn zhì shàng de chā yì， yīn wéi tā men rèn wéi rén lèi de shè huì xíng wéi guò yú fù zá（ wéi bó jiāng qí fēn lèi wéi chuán tǒng xíng wéi、 gǎn qíng xíng wéi、 mùdì lǐ xìng xíng wéi、 hé fù dài xíng wéi）， bù kě néng yòng chuán tǒng zì rán kē xué de fāng shì jiā yǐ yán jiū。 wéi bó de zǎo qī zhù zuò tōng cháng yǔ gōng yè shè huì xué yòu guān， dàn tā zuì zhī míng de gòng xiàn shì tā hòu lái zài zōng jiào shè huì xué hé zhèng zhì shè huì xué shàng de yán jiū。
wéi bó zài《 xīn jiào lún lǐ yǔ zī běn zhù yì jīng shén》 zhōng kāi shǐ liǎo tā de yán jiū， wén zhōng tā xiǎn shì chū mǒu xiē jìn yù de xīn jiào jiào pài héng yóu qí shì kā 'ěr wén jiào pài， jiào yì zhú jiàn zhuǎn biàn wéi zhēng qǔ lǐ xìng de jīng jì huò lì， yǐ cǐ biǎo dá tā men shòu dào shàng dì de zhù fú。 wéi bó zhù zhāng， shòu dào zhè zhǒng lǐ xìng jiào yì jī chǔ fú zhù de zī běn zhù yì hěn kuài biàn huì fā zhǎn de yuè lái yuè páng dà， bìng qiě yǔ yuán xiān de zōng jiào chǎn shēng máo dùn， dào zuì hòu zōng jiào biàn huì wú kě bì miǎn de bèi pāo qì。 wéi bó zài hòu lái de zuò pǐn lǐ jì xù yán jiū zhè yàng de xiàn xiàng， yóu qí shì zài tā duì guān liáo zhì hé duì yú zhèng zhì quán wēi de fēn lèi shàng。 zài zhè xiē zhù zuò zhōng tā 'àn shì liǎo zhè zhǒng shè huì de lǐ xìng huà shì wú kě bì miǎn de qū shì。
zhí dé zhù yì de shì， jīn tiān xǔ duō wéi bó de zhù zuò dōushì zài tā sǐ hòu cái bèi shōu jí、 xiū dìng、 bìng chū bǎn， zhè xiē gōng zuò zhù yào shì yóu tā de qī zǐ shī ní tè gé 'ěr jìn xíng de。 tǎ 'ěr kē tè · pà sēn sī děng zhī míng de shè huì xué jiādōu xiě xià liǎo xǔ duō duì yú wéi bó zhù zuò de jiě shì。
zōng jiào shè huì xué wéi bó zài zōng jiào shè huì xué shàng de yán jiū kāi shǐ yú míng wéi《 xīn jiào lún lǐ yǔ zī běn zhù yì jīng shén》 de lùn wén， bìng qiě jì xù zài《 zhōng guó de zōng jiào : rú jiào yǔ dào jiào》 yǐ jí《 yìn dù de zōng jiào : yìn dù jiào yǔ fó jiào de shè huì xué》、《 gǔ yóu tài jiào》 lǐ tàn suǒ。 tā duì yú qí tā zōng jiào de yán jiū zé yóu yú tā zài 1920 nián de tū rán qù shì 'ér zhōng duàn， shǐ tā wú fǎ jì xù zài《 gǔ yóu tài jiào》 zhī hòu de yī xì liè yán jiū héng bāo kuò liǎo jìhuà zhōng duì yú shī piān、 tǎ mù dé yóu tài rén、 yǐ jí zǎo qī jī dū jiào hé yī sī lán jiào de yán jiū。 tā suǒ wán chéng de nà sān gè zhù yào yán jiū dū guān zhù yú zōng jiào duì yú jīng jì huó dòng de yǐng xiǎng、 shè huì jiē céng yǔ zōng jiào lǐ xiǎng jiān de guān xì、 yǐ jí xī fāng wén míng de dú tè tè zhēng。
tā de mù biāo shì wéi liǎo zhǎo chū dōng xī fāng wén huà fā zhǎn chā jù de zhù yào yuán yīn。 bù guò yǔ dāng shí xǔ duō zūn xún shè huì dá 'ěr wén zhù yì de sī xiǎng jiā bù tóng de shì， wéi bó zuì chū bìng méi yòu dǎ suàn héng liàng hé píng duàn dōng xī fāng liǎng zhě de yōu liè； tā xī wàng zhuān zhù yú yán jiū bìng jiě shì xī fāng wén huà tè shū zhī chù。 zài tā de yán jiū fēn xī lǐ， wéi bó zhǐ chū kā 'ěr wén zhù yì（ huò zhě gèng guǎng fàn de héng jī dū jiào） zōng jiào lǐ xiǎng de yǐng xiǎng chéng wéi 'ōu zhōu hé měi guó de shè huì biàn gé yǐ jí jīng jì tǐ xì fā zhǎn de zhù yào yuán yīn， dàn tā yě zhǐ chū zhè bìng fēi cù chéng fā zhǎn wéi yī de yīn sù。 qí tā zhòng yào de yīn sù hái bāo kuò liǎo lǐ xìng zhù yì duì yú kē xué de zhuī qiú、 jiā shàng shù xué de kē xué tǒng jì、 fǎ lǜ xué、 yǐ jí duì yú zhèng fǔ xíng zhèng lǐ xìng de xì tǒng huà、 hé jīng jì shàng de qǐ yè。 zuì hòu， yǐ jù wéi bó de kàn fǎ， zōng jiào shè huì xué de yán jiū zhǐ bù guò shì tàn suǒ yī gè jiē duàn de biàn gé， yì jí nà xiē ràng xī fāng wén míng tū chū yú qí tā wén míng zhī wài de zhòng yào tè zhēng。
《 xīn jiào lún lǐ yǔ zī běn zhù yì jīng shén》
《 xīn jiào lún lǐ yǔ zī běn zhù yì jīng shén》 zuì chū dé wén bǎn běn de fēng miàn。 wéi bó de lùn wén《 xīn jiào lún lǐ yǔ zī běn zhù yì jīng shén》（ DieprotestantischeEthikundderGeistdesKapitalismus） shì tā zuì zhī míng de zhù zuò。 yī xiē rén rèn wéi zhè běn shū bù shì duì xīn jiào de xiáng xì yán jiū， ér qí shí shì wéi bó hòu lái de zhù zuò de jiè shào， yóu qí shì tā duì yú xǔ duō zōng jiào sī xiǎng hé jīng jì xíng wéi zhī jiān de hù dòng de yán jiū。 zài《 xīn jiào lún lǐ yǔ zī běn zhù yì jīng shén》 zhōng， wéi bó tí chū liǎo yī gè zhī míng de lùn diǎn： nà jiù shì qīng jiào tú de sī xiǎng yǐng xiǎng liǎo zī běn zhù yì de fā zhǎn。 yī bān zōng jiào de chuán tǒng wǎng wǎng pái chì shì sú de shì wù， yóu qí shì jīng jì chéng jiù shàng de zhuī qiú， dàn wèishénme zhè zhǒng guān niàn méi yòu fā shēng zài xīn jiào lǐ fā shēng ní？ wéi bó zài zhè piān lùn wén lǐ jiě shì liǎo zhè gè bèi lùn。
wéi bó jiāng“ zī běn zhù yì de jīng shén” dìng yì wéi yī zhǒng yōng hù zhuī qiú jīng jì lì yì de lǐ xiǎng。 wéi bó zhǐ chū， ruò shì zhǐ kǎo lǜ dào gè rén duì yú sī lì de zhuī qiú shí， zhè yàng de jīng shén bìng fēi zhǐ xiàn yú xī fāng wén huà， dàn shì zhè yàng de gè rén héng yīng xióng bān de qǐ yè jiā（ wéi bó rú cǐ chēng hū tā men） héng bìng bù néng zì xíng jiàn lì yī gè xīn de jīng jì zhì xù（ zī běn zhù yì）。 wéi bó fā xiàn zhè xiē gè rén bì xū yōng yòu de gòng tóng qīng xiàng hái bāo kuò liǎo shì tú yǐ zuì xiǎo de nǔ lì zuàn qǔ zuì dà de lì rùn， ér yǐn cáng zài zhè gè qīng xiàng bèi hòu de guān niàn， biàn shì rèn wéi gōng zuò shì yī zhǒng zuì 'è、 yě shì yī zhǒng yīnggāi bì miǎn de fù dān， yóu qí shì dāng gōng zuò chāo guò zhèng cháng de fèn liàng shí。“ wèile dá chéng zhè yàng de shēng huó fāng shì 'ér zì rán xī nà liǎo zī běn zhù yì de tè zhì， néng gòu yǐ cǐ zhī pèi tā rén” wéi bó rú cǐ xiě dào：“ zhè zhǒng jīng shén bì dìng shì lái zì mǒu zhǒng dì fāng， bù huì shì lái zì dān dú de gè rén， ér shì lái zì zhěng gè tuán tǐ de shēng huó fāng shì”。
zài dìng yì liǎo zī běn zhù yì de jīng shén hòu， wéi bó zhù zhāng yòu hěn duō yuán yīn shǐ wǒ men yīnggāi cóng zōng jiào gǎi gé yùn dòng de zōng jiào sī xiǎng lǐ xún zhǎo zhè zhǒng jīng shén de gēn yuán。 xǔ duō guān chá jiā rú mèng dé sī jiū hé jì cí dū jìzǎi xià xīn jiào hé shāng yè jīng shén fā zhǎn zhī jiān de mìqiè guān xì。 wéi bó zhǐ chū mǒu xiē xíng shì de xīn jiào de jiào yì héng yóu qí shì kā 'ěr wén（ jiā 'ěr wén） jiào pài héng zhī chí lǐ xìng de zhuī qiú jīng jì lì yì yǐ jí shì sú de huó dòng， jiāng zhè xiē xíng wéi fù yú liǎo zhèng miàn de jīng shén yǐ jí dào dé de hán yì。 zhè bìng fēi shì nà xiē zōng jiào sī xiǎng de zuì chū mù biāo， fǎn 'ér xiàng shì qí fù chǎn pǐn héng zhè xiē jiào yì hé zhǐ shì suǒ gēn jī de nèi zài luó ji， dū zhí jiē huò fēi zhí jiē de gǔ lì liǎo duì yú jīng jì lì yì de wàng wǒ zhuī qiú hé lǐ xìng jìhuà。 yī gè cháng jiàn de lì zǐ biàn shì xīn jiào duì yú zhì xié jiàng de miáo huì： yī gè suō zhù shēn zǐ zhuān zhù yú zhì xié、 jiāng zhěng gè rén nǔ lì gòng xiàn gěi shàng dì de rén。
wéi bó chēng tā fàng qì liǎo duì yú xīn jiào de jìn yī bù yán jiū， yīn wéi tā de tóng liáo 'ēn sī tè · tè lè 'ěr qí (ErnstTroeltsch)， yī míng zhuān yè de shén xué jiā yǐ jīng zhǎn kāi liǎo lìng yī běn shū de zhuān mén yán jiū。 lìng yī gè yuán yīn shì yīn wéi zhè piān lùn wén yǐ jīng tí gōng liǎo yī gè xiāng dāng guǎng fàn de guān chá diǎn， shǐ tā néng gòu zài jiē xià lái de yán jiū lǐ jì xù bǐ jiào qí tā de zōng jiào hé shè huì。 xiàn dài suǒ chēng de“ gōng zuò lún lǐ” zhè yī cí biàn shì yuán zì wéi bó suǒ tǎo lùn dào de“ xīn jiào tú lún lǐ”。 bù guò zhè yī cí bù zhǐ yòng yú xīn jiào tú de lún lǐ， yě néng tào yòng zhì rì běn rén、 yóu tài rén hé qí tā fēi jī dū tú shēn shàng liǎo。
《 zhōng guó de zōng jiào： rú jiào yǔ dào jiào》《 zhōng guó de zōng jiào： rú jiào yǔ dào jiào》 shì wéi bó zài zōng jiào shè huì xué shàng de dì 'èr běn zhù yào zhù zuò ( fān yì zuò rú“ jiào”， dàn shí jì shàng yìng chēng zuò rú jiā )。 wéi bó zhuān zhù yú tàn suǒ zhōng guó shè huì lǐ nà xiē hé xī 'ōu bù tóng de dì fāng héng yóu qí shì yǔ qīng jiào tú de duì zhào， tā bìng qiě tí chū liǎo yī gè wèn tí： wèishénme zī běn zhù yì méi yòu zài zhōng guó fā zhǎn ní？ wéi bó zhuān zhù yú zǎo qī de zhōng guó lì shǐ， yóu qí shì zhū zǐ bǎi jiā hé zhàn guó， zài zhè gè shí qī zhù yào de zhōng guó sī xiǎng xué pài（ rú jiào yǔ dào jiào） kāi shǐ tū xiǎn 'ér chū。
dào liǎo gōng yuán qián 200 nián， zhōng guó de guó jiā tǐ zhì yǐ jīng cóng yī gè sōng sàn de fēng jiàn zhì dù guó jiā de lián bāng fā zhǎn wéi yī gè tǒng yī de、 yǐ shì xí zhì dù xiāng chuán de dì guó。 rú tóng zài 'ōu zhōu yī yàng， zhōng guó de chéng shì chéng wéi liǎo yào sài huò shì lǐng dǎo zhě de jū zhù dì， bìng qiě yě chéng wéi liǎo mào yì hé gōng jiàng de jù jí zhōng xīn。 rán 'ér， yǔ 'ōu zhōu bù tóng de shì， tā men cóng lái méi yòu qǔ dé zhèng zhì shàng de zì zhì quán， qí shì mín yě méi yòu tè bié de zhèng zhì quán lì huò tè quán。 zhè zhù yào shì yīn wéi qīn qī guān xì de jǐn mì lián jié zào chéng de， ér zhè zhǒng lián jié zé shì chū yú zōng jiào xìn yǎng lǐ de zǔ chuán guān niàn。 lìng wài， gōng jiàng de tóng yè gōng huì bǐ cǐ jìng zhēng yǐ xiàng huáng dì zhēng chǒng， ér cóng lái méi yòu shì zhe lián hé qǐ lái zhēng qǔ gèng duō zhèng zhì quán lì。 yě yīn cǐ， zhōng guó chéng shì de jū mín cóng lái méi yòu zǔ chéng yī gè rú tóng 'ōu zhōu chéng shì yī bān de dú tè shè huì jiē jí。
jiào zǎo de guó jiā tǒng yī yǐ jí zhōng yāng guān liáo zhì dù de jiàn lì， zé yì wèi zhe zhōng guó shè huì quán lì dǒu zhēng de jiāo diǎn cóng tǔ dì de fēn pèi zhuǎn yí zhì guān zhí de fēn pèi， guān liáo de tān wū xiǎo fèi hé shuì shōu chéng wèile tā men zuì zhù yào de shōu rù lái yuán， guó jiā yòu 50% de shuì rù dū liú rù liǎo tā men de kǒu dài。 dì guó de zhèng fǔ zé yǐ lài yú zhè xiē guān liáo de fú wù， ér fēi rú tóng 'ōu zhōu yī bān yǐ lài yú qí shì de jūn shì fú wù。
wéi bó zhǐ chū rú jiào duì yú xǔ duō mín jiān jiào pài de xìn yǎng zhǎn xiàn xiāng dāng kuān róng de tài dù， ér cóng méi yòu shì zhe jiāng tā men tǒng yī wéi dān dú de zōng jiào jiào yì。 yǔ yī bān xíng 'ér shàng xué de zōng jiào jiào yì bù tóng de shì， rú jiào jiào dǎo rén men yào shùn zhe zhè gè shì jiè tiáozhěng hé xiū zhèng。“ gāo děng” de rén men（ zhī shí fènzǐ） yīnggāi bì miǎn zhuī qiú cái fù（ suī rán méi yòu biǎn dī cái fù běn shēn）， yě yīn cǐ， zhōng guó biàn chéng liǎo yī gè dān rèn gōng wù yuán bǐ shāng rén yōng yòu gèng gāo shè huì dì wèi hé gèng gāo lì yì de guó jiā .。
zhōng guó wén míng bìng méi yòu zōng jiào de xiān zhī huò shì quán lì jí dà de sēng lǚ jiē jí。 huáng dì zì shēn biàn shì guó jiào dì wèi zuì gāo de sēng lǚ yǐ jí zhì shàng de tǒng zhì zhě， dàn mín jiān de gè zhǒng xìn yǎng yě huì bèi róng rěn（ zhǐ bù guò qí sēng lǚ de zhèng zhì fā zhǎn kōng jiān huì bèi suō jiǎn）。 zhè zhǒng qíng kuàng yǔ zhōng shì jì de 'ōu zhōu chǎn shēng qiáng liè duì bǐ， zài 'ōu zhōu jiào huì yā zhì liǎo xiàn shì de tǒng zhì zhě， ér qiě tǒng zhì zhě hé rén mín suǒ bào chí de xìn yǎng dōushì yī yàng de。
yǐ jù rú jiào de xué shuō， duì yú wěi dà shén zhǐ de jìng yǎng zhǐ shì zhèng fǔ de shì wù， ér duì yú zǔ xiān de jìng yǎng zé shì suǒ yòu réndōu bì xū zūn cóng de， chú cǐ zhī wài xǔ xǔ duō duō mín jiān de xìn yǎng dōubèi róng rěn。 rú jiào yě róng rěn wū shù hé shén mì zhù yì héng zhǐ yào tā men néng gòu zuò wéi bāng zhù kòng zhì qún zhòng de yòu yòng gōng jù； dàn ruò shì tā men wēi xié dào jì yòu de zhì xù， rú jiào biàn huì qiǎn zé qí wéi yì duān bìng háo bù yóu yù de jiā yǐ zhèn yā（ rú tóng duì yú fó jiào de yā pò）。 zài zhè lǐ rú jiào zhǐ de shì zuò wéi yī zhǒng guó jiào， ér dào jiào zé shì mín jiān de xìn yǎng。
wéi bó zhù zhāng， suī rán yòu yī xiē duì zī běn zhù yì jīng jì fā zhǎn yòu lì de yīn sù cún zài（ cháng qī de hé píng、 yùn hé de gǎi shàn、 rén kǒu zēngzhǎng、 qǔ dé tǔ dì de zì yóu、 qiān xǐ zhì chū shēng dì yǐ wài de zì yóu、 yǐ jí xuǎn zé zhí yè de zì yóu）， rán 'ér zhè xiē yòu lì yīn sù dōuwú fǎ dǐ xiāo qí tā yīn sù de fù miàn yǐng xiǎng（ dà duō shù lái zì zōng jiào）：
jì shù de gǎi gé zài zōng jiào de jī chǔ shàng bèi fǎn duì， yīn wéi nà kě néng huì rǎo luàn duì yú zǔ xiān de chóng jìng、 jìn 'ér zhāo zhì huài yùn qì， ér tiáozhěng zì shēn shì yìng zhè gè shì jiè de xiàn zhuàng zé bèi shì wéi shì gèng hǎo de xuǎn zé。
duì yú tǔ dì de mài chū jīng cháng bèi jìn zhǐ、 huò zhě bèi xiàn zhì de xiāng dāng kùn nán
kuò zhāng de qīn qī guān xì（ gēn jī yú duì jiā tíng guān xì hé zǔ xiān chóng jìng de zōng jiào xìn yǎng shàng） bǎo hù jiā tíng chéng yuán miǎn shòu jīng jì de kùn jìng， yě yīn cǐ zǔ náo liǎo jiè zhài、 gōng zuò jì lǜ、 yǐ jí gōng zuò guò chéng de lǐ xìng huà。
nà xiē qīn qī guān xì yě fáng 'ài liǎo chéng shì tè shū jiē jí de fā zhǎn， bìng qiě zǔ náo liǎo cháo xiàng wán shàn fǎ lǜ zhì dù、 fǎ guī、 hé lǜ shī jiē jí jué qǐ de fā zhǎn。
yǐ jù wéi bó de shuō fǎ， rú jiào hé xīn jiào dài biǎo liǎo liǎng zhǒng guǎng fàn dàn bǐ cǐ pái chì de lǐ xìng huà， liǎng zhě dū shì zhe yǐ jù mǒu zhǒng zhōng jí de zōng jiào xìn yǎng shè jì rén lèi shēng huó。 liǎng zhě dū gǔ lì jié zhì hé zì wǒ kòng zhì、 yědōu néng yǔ cái fù de lěi jī xiāng bìng cún。 rán 'ér， rú jiào de mù biāo shì qǔ dé bìng bǎo cún“ yī zhǒng wén huà de dì wèi” bìng qiě yǐ zhī zuò wéi shǒu duàn lái shì yìng zhè gè shì jiè， qiáng diào jiào yù、 zì wǒ wán shàn、 lǐ mào、 yǐ jí jiā tíng lún lǐ。 xiāng fǎn de xīn jiào zé yǐ nà xiē shǒu duàn lái chuàng zào yī gè“ shàng dì de gōng jù”， chuàng zào yī gè néng gòu fú shì shàng dì hé zào shì zhù de rén。 zhè yàng qiáng liè de xìn yǎng hé rè qíng de xíng dòng zé bèi rú jiào de měi xué jià zhí guān niàn suǒ pái chì。 yīn cǐ， wéi bó zhù zhāng zhè zhǒng zài jīng shén shàng de chā yì biàn shì dǎo zhì zī běn zhù yì zài xī fāng wén míng fā zhǎn fán róng、 què chí chí méi yòu zài zhōng guó chū xiàn de yuán yīn。
《 yìn dù de zōng jiào : yìn dù jiào yǔ fó jiào de shè huì xué》《 yìn dù de zōng jiào : yìn dù jiào yǔ fó jiào de shè huì xué》 shì wéi bó zài zōng jiào shè huì xué shàng de dì sān běn zhù yào zhù zuò。 zài zhè běn shū zhōng tā jiǎn yàn liǎo yìn dù shè huì de jià gòu， duì zhào liǎo zhèng tǒng de yìn dù jiào jiào yì yǔ fēi zhèng tǒng de fó jiào jiào yì， yǐ jí qí tā mín jiān xìn yǎng de yǐng xiǎng， zuì hòu bìng yán jiū zhè xiē zōng jiào sī xiǎng duì yú yìn dù shè huì zài xiàn shì shàng de dào dé guān de yǐng xiǎng。
yìn dù de shè huì tǐ zhì shì yóu zhǒng xìng zhì dù de gài niàn suǒ xíng sù， zhí jiē lián jié liǎo zōng jiào sī xiǎng yǔ shè huì shàng de jiē jí fēn gé de guān xì。 wéi bó miáo shù zhè zhǒng zhǒng xìng zhì dù shì yóu pó luó mén（ sēng lǚ）、 chà dì lì（ zhàn shì）、 fèi shè（ shāng rén）、 shǒu tuó luó（ láo gōng） suǒ zǔ chéng。 jiē zhe tā zhǐ chū zhǒng xìng zhì dù zài yìn dù de sàn bù shì yīn wéi lì shǐ shàng de zhēng fú qīn lüè suǒ zào chéng， mǒu xiē bù luò zāo dào liǎo biān yuán huà、 zhǒng zú zhì dù yě yīn cǐ yuè lái yuè gēn shēn dì gù。
wéi bó tè bié zhuān zhù yú duì pó luó mén jiē jí de yán jiū， bìng fēn xī tā men wèihé néng gòu zhàn jù yìn dù shè huì de zuì gāo jiē jí wèi zhì cháng dá shù gè shì jì。 zài yán jiū liǎo fó fǎ gài niàn de yǐng xiǎng hòu， wéi bó zǒng jié rèn wéi yìn dù shè huì de dào dé guān duō yuán qīng xiàng， yǔ rú jiào hé jī dū jiào pǔ shì 'ér tǒng yī de dào dé guān bù xiāng tóng。 rú tóng zhōng guó yī yàng， tā zhù yì dào zhǒng xìng zhì dù yě fáng 'ài liǎo yìn dù dū shì dú tè jiē jí de fā zhǎn。
jǐn jiē zhe， wéi bó fēn xī liǎo yìn dù de zōng jiào sī xiǎng， bāo kuò liǎo jìn yù zhù yì hé yìn dù de shì jiè guān、 pó luó mén de zhèng tǒng jiào yì、 fó jiào zài yìn dù de jué qǐ hé shuāi tuì、 yǐ jí gǔ lǔ（ yìn dù jiào jì sī） de fā zhǎn。 wéi bó tí chū de wèn tí shì： zhè xiē zōng jiào sī xiǎng duì yú yìn dù shè huì rì cháng de shì sú huó dòng yòu méi yòu rèn hé yǐng xiǎng ní？ rú guǒ yòu de huà， tā yòu duì jīng jì huó dòng chǎn shēng liǎo shénme yǐng xiǎng？ wéi bó zhù yì dào yìn dù jiào lǐ suǒ qiáng diào de yǒng héng bù biàn de shì jiè zhì xù， shì yóu yǒng bù tíng zhǐ de lún huí gài niàn hé duì xiàn shì shì jiè de dí yì suǒ gòu chéng， tā fā xiàn zhè zhǒng yóu zōng jiào zhī chí de chuán tǒng zhǒng xìng zhì dù zuì hòu zǔ 'ài liǎo jīng jì de fā zhǎn； huàn jù huà shuō， zhǒng xìng zhì dù de“ jīng shén” duì yú dāng dì de zī běn zhù yì fā zhǎn qǐ liǎo jí dà de zǔ náo zuò yòng。
zài yán jiū de zǒng jié lǐ， wéi bó jiāng tā duì yú yìn dù shè huì xué hé zōng jiào de yán jiū yǔ zhī qián duì zhōng guó de yán jiū zōng hé qǐ lái。 tā zhù yì dào zhè xiē zōng jiào dū jiāng rén lèi shēng mìng de yì yì jiě shì wéi chāo tuō shì sú de huò shì shén mì xìng de jīng yàn， zhè xiē shè huì de zhī shí fènzǐ tōng cháng qīng xiàng yú yàn 'è zhèng zhì， ér shè huì jià gòu wǎng wǎng bèi qū fēn wéi shòu guò jiào yù yǔ fǒu de liǎng zhǒng jiē jí， nà xiē shòu guò jiào yù de zhī shí fèn zǐ zuò wéi xiān zhī huò zhì zhě de bǎng yàng， ér wèi shòu jiào yù de dà zhòng zé tíng liú zài rì cháng shēng huó de yōng sú lǐ bìng qiě xiāng xìn mí xìn de mín jiān wū shù。 zài yà zhōu shè huì， rú tóng jī dū jiào mí sài yà yī bān、 néng gòu bù fēn shòu guò jiào yù yǔ fǒu jiē jǐyǔ jiù shú hé zhǐ yǐn de jiù shì zhù bìng bù cún zài。 wéi bó zhù zhāng， zhèng shì yīn wéi mí sài yà jiù shì zhù qǐ yuán yú jìn dōng guó jiā， shǐ dé tā men yǔ yà zhōu dà lù de zhù yào zōng jiào chǎn shēng chā yì， xī fāng guó jiā yě yīn cǐ miǎn yú xiàn rù zhōng guó hé yìn dù de dào lù。 wéi bó zài tā xià yī běn zhù zuò《 gǔ yóu tài jiào》 jìn yī bù zhèng shí liǎo zhè gè lùn diǎn。
《 gǔ yóu tài jiào》《 gǔ yóu tài jiào》 shì wéi bó duì yú zōng jiào shè huì xué de dì sì běn zhù zuò， wéi bó shì zhe jiě shì“ gè zhǒng qíng kuàng de jié hé” dǎo zhì liǎo zǎo qī dōng fāng hé xī fāng wén míng de chā jù。 yóu qí shì jiāng xī fāng jī dū jiào de shì sú jìn yù zhù yì yǔ yìn dù fā zhǎn chū de shén mì míng sī xìn yǎng xiāng duì zhào shí， zhè zhǒng chā yì xiǎn dé tè bié míng xiǎn。 wéi bó zhù yì dào yī xiē jī dū jiào de guān diǎn dài yòu zhēng fú hé gǎi biàn shì jiè de lǐ xiǎng， ér bù jiā yǐ táo bì zhī。 zhè zhǒng jī dū jiào de jī běn tè zhēng（ dāng yǔ yuǎn dōng de zōng jiào xiāng duì zhào shí） zé shì yuán yú gǔ dài yóu tài rén de xiān zhī。 dāng wéi bó shù jí tā yán jiū gǔ yóu tài jiào de yuán yīn shí， tā xiě dào“ rèn hé zài xiàn dài 'ōu zhōu wén míng chuán tǒng xià chéngzhǎng de réndōu huì zì rán de yǐ yī lián chuàn de jiǎ shè lái jiě jué yù dào de lì shǐ wèn tí， zhè duì tā 'ér yán shì bù kě bì miǎn 'ér qiě yě xiāng dāng hé lǐ de。 zhè xiē wèn tí jiāng kě yǐ zhǎo chū zài gè zhǒng qíng kuàng de jié hé xià， xī fāng wén huà de dú tè zhī chù、 yǐ jí qí pǔ biàn de dú tè wén huà hán yì。”
“ duì yú yóu tài rén 'ér yán … shì jiè de shè huì zhì xù yǐ jīng fā zhǎn zhì yǔ dāng chū xiān zhī duì yú wèi lái de nuò yán xiāng fǎn de qíng kuàng liǎo， dàn tā men réng rèn wéi wèi lái zhè zhǒng qíng kuàng huì bèi gǎi biàn、 yóu tài rén yě huì zài cì jué qǐ。 zài yóu tài rén kàn lái lái， shì jiè jì bù shì yǒng héng de yě fēi yī chéng bù biàn de， ér shì bèi chuàng zào chū lái de。 shì jiè biǎo xiàn chū de jià gòu jiù rú tóng yī gè rén xíng wéi de jiēguǒ， chú liǎo suǒ yòu yóu tài rén zhī wài、 jiā shàng shàng dì duì tā men de fǎn yìng 'ér xíng sù 'ér chéng de。 yě yīn cǐ shì jiè běn shēn shì yī gè lì shǐ de chǎn wù， shì bèi shè jì yòng yǐ shí xiàn shàng dì zhǐ dìng de zhì xù de… chú cǐ zhī wài tā shì cún zài yú yī gè jù yòu gāo dù lǐ xìng de zōng jiào lún lǐ de shè huì shàng； tā bù shòu shén mì wū shù yǐ jí qí tā suǒ yòu fēi lǐ xìng xún qiú jiù shú de xíng wéi de yǐng xiǎng； tā yǔ nà xiē yà zhōu zōng jiào tí chū de jiù shú tú jìng wán quán chǔyú bù tóng de shì jiè。 gèng guǎng fàn de shuō zhè zhǒng dào dé guān zài jīn tiān yǐ rán shì zhōng dōng hé 'ōu zhōu de jī běn dào dé guān。 yóu tài rén zài shì jiè lì shǐ shàng de zhòng yào xìng biàn shì chū zì zhè gè yuán yīn。… yě yīn cǐ， zài sī kǎo dào yóu tài rén dāng chū fā zhǎn de lì shǐ shí， wǒ men biàn lái dào liǎo xī fāng hé zhōng dōng zhěng gè wén huà fā zhǎn de fēn shuǐ lǐng。”
wéi bó fēn xī liǎo zhōng dōng bèi dū yīn rén、 chéng bāng、 mù rén hé nóng fū、 hé tā men zhī jiān de hù dòng hé chōng tū， yǐ jí yǐ sè liè lián hé wáng guó de xīng qǐ hé shuāi luò。 lián hé wáng guó de shí qī jiù fǎng fó lì shǐ zhōng de yī gè chāqǔ， jiāng chū 'āi jí jì yǐ lái de lián bāng shí qī yǔ yǐ sè liè rén zài jiā nán de zhí mín shí qī yī fēn wéi 'èr。 zhè zhǒng shí qī de qū fēn hé zōng jiào de lì shǐ yòu jí dà guān xì， yóu yú yóu tài jiào de jī běn jiào yì shì zài yǐ sè liè lián bāng shí qī xíng chéng de， tā men zài lián hé wáng cháo shuāi bài hòu chéng wèile xiān zhī gài niàn de jī chǔ， bìng zài hòu lái duì xī fāng wén míng chǎn shēng liǎo jí dà de yǐng xiǎng。
wéi bó tǎo lùn liǎo zǎo qī yǐ sè liè de lián bāng jià gòu、 yǐ sè liè rén yǔ yé hé huá de dú tè guān xì、 wài guó zōng jiào de yǐng xiǎng、 zōng jiào kuáng rè de xíng shì、 yǐ jí yóu tài jiào jì sī men duì kàng zōng jiào kuáng rèhuo 'ǒu xiàng chóng bài de dǒu zhēng。 tā jiē zhe miáo shù liǎo wáng guó de fēn liè、 shèng jīng de xiān zhī men zài shè huì fāng miàn de tài dù、 gǔ huò rén xīn de zhèng kè、 zōng jiào mí xìn hé zhèng zhì， yǐ jí xiān zhī men de dào dé guān。 wéi bó zhù yì dào yóu tài jiào bù zhǐ shì jī dū jiào hé yī sī lán jiào de shǐ zǔ， tóng shí yě shì xiàn dài xī fāng shì jiè jué qǐ de guān jiàn yīn sù， yīn wéi tā yǐng xiǎng liǎo gǔ xī là hé gǔ luó mǎ de wén huà。 shè huì xué jiā lài yīn hǎdé · běn dí kè sī (ReinhardBendix) gài shù《 gǔ yóu tài jiào》 yī shū dào：“ zài shàng dì de níng shì xià， nǔ lì miǎn yú wū shù hé shén mì mí xìn、 xiàn shēn yú fǎ lǜ de yán jiū、 jǐn shèn xuǎn zé zuò chū zhèng què de shì qíng， yǐ cǐ qī pàn wèi lái néng gòu gèng hǎo， xiān zhī men shè lì liǎo zhè yàng yī gè jiāng rén de rì cháng shēng huó zhì yú fú cóng shàng dì zhǐ shì de dào dé fǎ zé xià de zōng jiào。 tòu guò zhè yàng de jiào yì， gǔ yóu tài jiào cù chéng liǎo dào dé lǐ xìng zhù yì de xī fāng wén míng de dàn shēng。”
zhèng zhì hé zhèng fǔ shè huì xué
《 zhèng zhì zuò wéi yī zhǒng zhí yè》 dé wén bǎn dì 'èr bǎn fēng miàn。 zài zhèng zhì hé zhèng fǔ de shè huì xué shàng， wéi bó zuì zhòng yào de gòng xiàn zhī yī biàn shì yī piān míng wéi《 zhèng zhì zuò wéi yī zhǒng zhí yè》（ PolitikalsBeruf） de lùn wén。 zài zhè piān lùn wén lǐ wéi bó tí chū liǎo duì guó jiā de dìng yì： yì jí guó jiā shì yī gè“ yōng yòu hé fǎ shǐ yòng bào lì de lǒng duàn dì wèi” de shí tǐ， zhè gè dìng yì chéng wéi xī fāng shè huì kē xué de zhòng yào jī chǔ。 zài zhè piān lùn wén lǐ wéi bó zhù zhāng， zhèng zhì yīnggāi bèi shì wéi shì rèn hé huì yǐng xiǎng dào kòng zhì bào lì de quán lì fēn pèi de huó dòng。 zhèng zhì yě yīn cǐ shì chún cuì lái zì yú quán lì。 yě yīn cǐ yī gè zhèng zhì jiā bù néng bèi shì wéi shì yī gè“ zhēn zhèng dào dé de jī dū tú”， yě bù kě néng rú tóng shān shàng bǎo xùn lǐ suǒ shù de huì jiāng liǎn jiá zhuǎn guò lái ràng rén guó 'ěr guāng。 zūn cóng nà yàng de dào dé de rén yīnggāi bèi guī shǔ yú shèng rén， zhǐ yòu shèng rén cái huì zhè yàng zuò。 ér xiàn shí de zhèng zhì jiè shì méi yòu yǔn xǔ shèng rén cānyù de kōng jiān de， yī gè zhèng zhì jiā yīnggāi cǎi nà de lún lǐ shì dào dé yǔ zhèng zhì mù biāo de quán héng (Proportion)、 yǐ jí fù zé rèn de lún lǐ (Responsibility)， bìng qiě bì xū duì tā de zhí yè yōng yòu qiáng liè de rè qíng (Passion)、 tóng shí hái bì xū xué huì jiāng zì jǐ de qíng xù hàowù yǔ shí jì mù biāo qū gé kāi lái (Distance)。
wéi bó bìng qiě tí chū liǎo sān zhǒng zhèng shì de zhèng zhì zhī pèi hé quán wēi de xíng shì： mèi lì xíng quán wēi（ jiā zú hé zōng jiào）、 chuán tǒng xíng quán wēi（ zōng zhù、 fù quán、 fēng jiàn zhì dù）、 yǐ jí fǎ lǐ xíng quán wēi（ xiàn dài de fǎ lǜ hé guó jiā、 guān liáo）。 wéi bó zhù zhāng lì shǐ shàng de tǒng zhì zhě yǔ bèi tǒng zhì zhě jiān de guān xì duō shǎo bāo hán liǎo zhè yàng de chéngfèn。 tā rèn wéi mèi lì xíng quán wēi de bù wěn dìng xìng bì rán dǎo zhì qí bèi pò zhuǎn biàn wéi“ cháng guī de” quán wēi xíng shì， yě jiù shì chuán tǒng huò zhě guān liáo xíng zhī pèi。 tóng yàng de， tā yě zhù yì dào zài chún cuì de chuán tǒng xíng zhī pèi lǐ， duì yú zhī pèi zhě de dǐ kàng dào dá yī dìng chéng dù shí biàn huì chǎn shēng“ chuán tǒng de gé mìng”。 yīn cǐ wéi bó yě 'àn shì liǎo shè huì huì zhú jiàn cháo xiàng yī gè lǐ xìng hé fǎ de quán wēi jià gòu fā zhǎn， bìng qiě lì yòng guān liáo de jià gòu zhì dù。 jìn guǎn wéi bó páng zá de zhù zuò zhōng 'àn shì zhè zhǒng shè huì de lǐ xìng huà shì bù kě bì miǎn de qū shì， tā zì jǐ shí fēn xiǎo xīn bì miǎn jìn huà lùn yǔ mùdì lùn de luó ji。 rán 'ér yóu yú wéi bó zuì zǎo de yīng yì lái zì jié gòu gōng néng pài de TalcottParsons， shǐ dé tā de lǐ lùn shí cháng bèi shì wéi shè huì jìn huà lùn de yī bù fēn。
wéi bó zài shè huì de guān liáo huà shàng de pī pàn yán jiū yě xiāng dāng wéi rén suǒ zhī， yán jiū yī gè zhèng shì de shè huì tǐ zhì rú hé yǐ lǐ xìng de fāng shì tào yòng mǒu zhǒng xíng shì de guān liáo zhì dù。 shì shí shàng yě shì yīn wéi wéi bó zhǎn kāi liǎo duì yú guān liáo zhì dù de yán jiū， shǐ dé guān liáo（ Bureaucracy） zhè yī cí chéng wéi cháng yòng de shè huì kē xué shù yǔ。 xǔ duō xiàn dài gōng gòng xíng zhèng xué de yán jiū dōukě yǐ zhuī sù huí wéi bó。 dāng shè huì xué yán jiū shù jí yī gè chuán tǒng de、 yòu zhe jiē jí jià gòu de dà lù xíng wén guān tǐ zhì shí， yě jīng cháng jiāng zhī chēng wéi“ wéi bó wén guān tǐ zhì”。 bù guò zhè zhǐ shì wéi bó zài tā de《 jīng jì hé shè huì》（ 1922） lǐ suǒ tí jí de qí zhōng yī zhǒng gōng gòng xíng zhèng hé zhèng fǔ tǒng zhì xíng shì， ér qiě wéi bó gè rén bìng bù xīn shǎng zhè zhǒng zhì dù héng tā zhǐ shì rèn wéi nà tè bié chéng gōng hé yòu xiào bà liǎo。 zài zhè běn shū lǐ， wéi bó gòu huà chū liǎo shè huì xué zhī míng de“ lǐ xìng huà” gài niàn， yì jí cóng yī gè jià zhí wéi qǔ xiàng hé xíng dòng de tǐ zhì（ chuán tǒng xíng quán wēi hé mèi lì xíng quán wēi） zhuǎn biàn wéi yī gè yǐ mùdì wéi qǔ xiàng hé xíng dòng de tǐ zhì（ fǎ lǜ xíng quán wēi）。 ér yǐ jù wéi bó de shuō fǎ， bù duàn lǐ xìng huà de jiēguǒ jiāng huì shì yī gè“ bīng lěng de běi jí yè wǎn” héng rén lèi shēng huó de lǐ xìng huà zào chéng gè rén xiàn rù liǎo yī gè yǐ quán lì tǒng zhì hé lǐ xìng wéi gēn jī“ tiě lóng zǐ” lǐ。 wéi bó de guān liáo yán jiū yě shǐ tā zhèng què yù gū liǎo 'é guó de shè huì zhù yì gé mìng de jié jú， yóu yú zì yóu shì chǎng hé qí jī zhì zāo dào fèi zhǐ， guó jiā bù dàn méi yòu xiāo shī（ kǎ 'ěr · mǎ kè sī yù yán gòng chǎn zhù yì shè huì jiāng huì dá chéng zhè gè mù biāo）、 fǎn 'ér kāi shǐ liǎo guī mó jīng rén de guò dù guān liáo huà（ jǔ lì 'ér yán， duǎn quē jīng jì de bào fā biàn shì zhèng jù zhī yī）。
zhí dé yī tí de shì， wéi bó zài sān zhǒng zhèng dāng zhī pèi zhī wài， céng jīng tí chū yì dà lì de chéng shì gòng hé zhèng zhì shì yī zhǒng fēi zhèng dāng de zhī pèi， kě jiàn tā de zhī pèi lèi xíng xué réng yòu mó hú zhī chù。 tā duì mín zhù zhèng zhì mèi lì xíng lǐng xiù yǔ guān liáo tiě lóng zhī jiān hù dòng de bēi guān， yě duì hòu shì de mín zhù lǐ lùn， tè bié shì xióng bǐ dé de jīng yīng zhèng zhì xué shuō， chǎn shēng liǎo jí dà de yǐng xiǎng。 wéi bó duì wèi mǎ mín zhù de kàn fǎ sì hū yù jiàn liǎo nà cuì de xīng qǐ。
jīng jì shǐ xué yǔ shè huì fēn céng suī rán mǎ kè sī · wéi bó zài jīn tiān zuì wéi rén suǒ zhī de shì tā shēn wéi xiàn dài shè huì xué de chuàng shǐ rén hé diàn jī xué zhě zhī yī， dàn tā yě zài qí tā xǔ duō lǐng yù yòu bù shǎo chéng jiù， zuì zhí dé zhù yì de shì jīng jì xué。 wéi bó zài shì shí zhè yàng jīng què de xué kē fēn lèi xiāng dāng shǎo jiàn， ér wéi bó yě zì shì wéi zhù yào shì yī gè lì shǐ xué jiā hé jīng jì xué jiā， shè huì xué jiā jǐn shì dì 'èr lǐng yù bà liǎo。
cóng jīng jì xué jiā de guān diǎn lái kàn， mǎ kè sī · wéi bó dài biǎo de shì dé guó de jīng jì lì shǐ xué pài“ zuì nián qīng” de yī dài。 tā duì yú jīng jì xué zuì zhòng yào de gòng xiàn shì tā de zhī míng zhù zuò《 xīn jiào lún lǐ yǔ zī běn zhù yì jīng shén》， zhè běn shū jīng diǎn de duì zhào liǎo zōng jiào zài jīng jì fā zhǎn shàng chǎn shēng de yǐng xiǎng。 wéi bó de yán jiū lǐng yù yě yǔ tā de tóng liáo wéi 'ěr nà · sōng bā tè xiāng tóng， sōng bā tè zé jiāng zī běn zhù yì de jué qǐ guī gōng yú yóu tài jiào de yǐng xiǎng。 wéi bó duì yú jīng jì xué de qí tā zhù yào gòng xiàn（ zhěng tǐ shàng yě shì duì yú shè huì kē xué de gòng xiàn） hái bāo kuò liǎo tā zài fāng fǎ xué shàng de yán jiū： tā duì yú jiě shì shè huì xué（ Verstehen； cǐ cí lái zì dé yǔ， yì wéi lǐ jiě） de lǐ lùn hé fǎn shí zhèng zhù yì（ yòu chēng wéi rén wén zhù yì shè huì xué） )。
jiě shì shè huì xué de yuán zé shì shè huì xué zhù yào de yán jiū fàn lì zhī yī， zhī chí zhě hé pī píng zhě dū xiāng dāng duō。 zhè zhǒng yán jiū fāng shì zhù zhāng shè huì xué、 jīng jì xué、 hé lì shǐ xué děng shè huì kē xué de yán jiū yǒng yuǎn bù néng chè dǐ de guī nà hé jìzǎi， yīn wéi yán jiū zhě bì xū yī zhí yòu zhe gài niàn shàng de rèn zhī cái néng jiā yǐ tàn suǒ zhī， wéi bó jiāng zhè zhǒng tiáo jiàn chēng wéi“ lǐ xiǎng xíng shì”（ IdealType）。 zhè zhǒng lǐ xiǎng kě yǐ zhè yàng zǐ guī nà： yī gè lǐ xiǎng de xíng shì shì yóu xǔ duō xiàn xiàng tí gōng de mǒu xiē tè zhēng hé chéngfèn suǒ zǔ chéng， dàn tā què bù huì yǔ rèn hé tè dìng de xiàn xiàng yòu zhe wán quán yī yàng de tè zhēng。 wéi bó de lǐ xiǎng xíng shì chéng wéi tā duì shè huì kē xué zuì zhòng yào de gòng xiàn zhī yī。
wéi bó chéng rèn zhè zhǒng“ lǐ xiǎng xíng shì” shì yī zhǒng chōu xiàng de chǎn wù， dàn tā zhù zhāng rèn hé xiǎng yào liǎo jiě tè dìng shè huì xiàn xiàng de réndōu bì xū yòu zhè zhǒng lǐ xiǎng xíng shì， yīn wéi yǔ wù lǐ de xiàn xiàng bù tóng de shì， shè huì kē xué hái qiān shè dào fù zá wàn fēn de rén lèi xíng wéi， ér zhè zhǐ yòu kě néng yǐ lǐ xiǎng xíng shì de fāng fǎ lái jiā yǐ jiě shì。 lǐ xiǎng xíng shì de gài niàn， jiā shàng tā de fǎn shí zhèng zhù yì de lì lùn， kě yǐ bèi shì wéi shì tā duì“ lǐ xìng de jīng jì rén” de fāng fǎ lùn jiǎ shè de biàn hù。
wéi bó bìng qiě gōng shì huà liǎo shè huì jiē céng de sān dà yào jiàn lǐ lùn， zhù zhāng shè huì jiē jí、 shè huì dì wèi、 hé tuán tǐ（ huò zhèng dǎng） zài gài niàn shàng shì bù tóng de yào jiàn。
shè huì jiē jí shì yǐ zài jīng jì shàng yǔ shì chǎng de hù dòng suǒ jué dìng de（ wù zhù、 chéng zū rén、 yuán gōng děng děng）。
shè huì dì wèi shì yǐ fēi jīng jì de chéngfèn rú róng yù、 shēng wàng hé zōng jiào gòu chéng。
zhèng dǎng zé zhǐ yī gè rén yǔ zhèng zhì jiè de lián xì。
ér zhè sān zhǒng yào jiàn dū huì yǐng xiǎng dào wéi bó chēng wéi“ shēng yá jī huì” de jiēguǒ。
wéi bó duì jīng jì xué hái yòu qí tā yī xiē gòng xiàn： bāo kuò liǎo jīng guò rèn zhēn yán jiū de luó mǎ nóng yè lì shǐ， hé tā zài《 jīng jì hé shè huì》 yī shū lǐ shù jí de wéi xīn zhù yì jí wéi wù zhù yì liǎng zhě duì yú zī běn zhù yì lì shǐ de yǐng xiǎng， wéi bó yě zài shū zhōng chéng xiàn liǎo duì yú mǎ kè sī zhù yì de yī xiē pī píng。 zuì hòu， tā zài《 jīng jì yǔ lì shǐ》（ Wirtschaftsgeschichte） zhōng de zǎi xì yán jiū zé kě yǐ bèi shì wéi shì jīng jì lì shǐ xué pài zuì jié chū de zuò pǐn zhī yī。
duì mǎ kè sī · wéi bó de pī píng mǎ kè sī · wéi bó guān yú jī dū xīn jiào lún lǐ jué dìng jīng jì fā zhǎn de guān diǎn hé 'ōu zhōu de fā zhǎn běn shēn xiāng máo dùn。 yì dà lì běi bù dì fāng、 bā fá lì yà、 lāi yīn hé dì qū、 xī bān yá hé fǎ guó děng dì zī běn zhù yì jīng jì de fā zhǎn， jīng cháng bèi kàn zuò zī běn zhù yì fā zhǎn dān yī yīn sù jué dìng lùn de fǎn lì， bāo kuò dì lǐ de、 zhèng zhì de huò zhě qí tā dān yī yīn sù de jué dìng lùn， yě bāo kuò xīn jiào lún lǐ lǐ lùn。 yī bān rèn wéi lì shǐ shàng 'ōu zhōu zī běn zhù yì fā zhǎn de tuī dòng lì zài yú cái chǎn quán de jiā qiáng、 jiāo yì chéng běn de jiàng dī、 fēng jiàn zhù yì de shuāi luò hé wǎ jiě děng。
zài xiàn dāng dài， zhōng guó dà lù、 xiāng gǎng、 tái wān、 xīn jiā pō、 rì běn děng dì zài jīng jì shàng qǔ dé liǎo fán róng， ér zhè xiē dì qū shì jù yòu rú jiā jià zhí guān de shè huì。 dōng yà dì qū de chéng gōng， yě hé jī dū jiào méi yòu guān xì。 yīn cǐ， biǎo miàn kàn lái mǎ kè sī · wéi bó guān yú jī dū xīn jiào lún lǐ hé jīng jì fā zhǎn de lǐ lùn sì hū yǔ shì shí xiāng bèi。 dàn shì， mǎ kè sī · wéi bó zài tā de yán jiū zhōng jǐn jǐn shì tú jiē shì xīn jiào lún lǐ zài zī běn zhù yì jīng shén xíng chéng chū qī de suǒ bàn yǎn de ‘ huǒ chē bān dào gōng ’ juésè， cǐ hòu de zī běn zhù yì fēng shàng（ ethos) zài shí kōng de tuī yí zhōng huò dé liǎo xīn de fēi zōng jiào xìng néng liàng hé zhí zhe wù yù de lǐ yóu， rén lèi lì shǐ yě jiù cǐ zǒu shàng liǎo xīn de guǐ dào。 mǎ kè sī · wéi bó céng yōu xīn chōng chōng dì zài xīn jiào lún lǐ yǔ zī běn zhù yì jīng shén yī shū jié wěi chù jiāng zhè zhǒng chéng shú zī běn zhù yì de nèi zài luó ji hé zì shēn yǎn huà chēng wéi‘ rén lèi de tiě lóng’。
dāng dài lái zì jiě gòu zhù yì huò wú zhèng fǔ zhù yì děng duì jī dū xīn jiào lǐ lùn de pī pàn zé rèn wéi wéi zēng jiā shì sú cái fù de gōng zuò shì shén shèng de huò gāo guì de zhuī qiú de jiǎ shè běn shēn bìng bù chéng lì。 yī xiē zuò jiā rú hēng lì · dà wèi · suō luó（ HenryDavidThoreau） hé sài miù 'ěr · yuē hàn xùn（ SamuelJohnson） děng rén wéi xīn cháo rén qún、 lǎnsǎn zhě、 pī pàn jī dū xīn jiào děng lǐ lùn tí gōng liǎo jī chǔ。
Weber was a key proponent of methodological antipositivism, presenting sociology as a non-empiricist field which must study social action through interpretive means based upon understanding the meanings and purposes that individuals attach to their own actions. Weber is often cited, with Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx, as one of the three principal architects of modern social science.
Weber's main intellectual concern was understanding the processes of rationalisation, secularization, and "disenchantment" that he associated with the rise of capitalism and modernity. Weber argued that the most important difference among societies is not how people produce things but how people think about the world. In Weber’s view, modern society was the product of a new way of thinking. Weber is perhaps best known for his thesis combining economic sociology and the sociology of religion, elaborated in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber proposed that ascetic Protestantism was one of the major "elective affinities" associated with the rise of capitalism, bureaucracy and the rational-legal nation-state in the Western world. Against Marx's "historical materialism," Weber emphasised the importance of cultural influences embedded in religion as a means for understanding the genesis of capitalism. The Protestant Ethic formed the earliest part in Weber's broader investigations into world 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, as well as to their differing forms of social stratification.[a]
In another major work, Politics as a Vocation, Weber defined the state as an entity which successfully claims a "monopoly on the legitimate use of violence". He was also the first to categorize social authority into distinct forms, which he labelled as charismatic, traditional, and rational-legal. His analysis of bureaucracy emphasised that modern state institutions are increasingly based on rational-legal authority. Weber also made a variety of other contributions in economic history, as well as economic theory and methodology. Weber's thought on modernity and rationalisation would come to facilitate critical theory of the Frankfurt school.
After the First World War, Max Weber was among the founders of the liberal German Democratic Party. He also ran unsuccessfully for a seat in parliament and served as advisor to the committee that drafted the ill-fated democratic Weimar Constitution of 1919. After contracting the Spanish flu, he died of pneumonia in 1920, aged 56.
Biography
Early life and family backgroundWeber was born in 1864, in Erfurt, Thuringia. He was the eldest of the seven children of Max Weber Sr., a wealthy and prominent civil servant and member of the National Liberal Party, and his wife Helene (Fallenstein), who partly descended from French Huguenot immigrants and held strong moral absolutist ideas. Weber Sr.'s involvement in public life immersed his home in both politics and academia, as his salon welcomed 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." In class, bored and unimpressed with the teachers – who in turn resented what they perceived as a disrespectful attitude – he secretly read all forty volumes of Goethe. Before entering the university, he would read many other classical works. Over time, Weber would also be significantly affected by the marital tension between his father, "a man who enjoyed earthly pleasures," and his mother, a devout Calvinist "who sought to lead an ascetic life."
Max Weber and his brothers, Alfred and Karl, in 1879
EducationIn 1882 Weber enrolled in the University of Heidelberg as a law student. After a year of military service he transferred to University of Berlin. After his first few years as a student, during which he spent much time "drinking beer and fencing," Weber would increasingly take his mother's side in family arguments and grew estranged from his father. Simultaneously with his studies, he worked as a junior barrister. 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 law and history. He earned his law doctorate in 1889 by writing a dissertation on legal history entitled The History of Medieval Business Organisations; his advisor was Levin Goldschmidt, a respected authority in commercial law. Two years later, Weber completed his Habilitationsschrift, The Roman Agrarian History and its Significance for Public and Private Law, working with August Meitzen. Having thus become a Privatdozent, Weber joined the University of Berlin's faculty, lecturing and consulting for the government.
Early workIn 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, a new professional association of German economists affiliated with the historical school, who saw the role of economics primarily as finding solutions to the social problems of the age and who pioneered large scale statistical studies of economic issues. He also involved himself in politics, joining the left-leaning Evangelical Social Congress. In 1890 the Verein established a research program to examine "the Polish question" or Ostflucht: the influx of Polish 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 the final report, which generated considerable attention and controversy and marked the beginning of Weber's renown as a social scientist. From 1893 to 1899 Weber was a member of the Alldeutscher Verband (Pan-German League), an organisation that campaigned against the influx of the Polish workers; the degree of Weber's support for the Germanisation of Poles and similar nationalist policies is still debated by modern scholars.
Max Weber and his wife Marianne in 1894Also in 1893 he married his distant cousin Marianne Schnitger, later a feminist activist and author in her own right, who was instrumental in collecting and publishing Weber's journal articles as books after his death and her biography of him is an important source for understanding Weber's life. They would have no children. The marriage granted long-awaited financial independence to Weber, allowing him to finally leave his parents' household. The couple moved to Freiburg in 1894, where Weber was appointed professor of economics at the university, before accepting the same position at the University of Heidelberg in 1896. There Weber became a central figure in the so-called "Weber Circle," composed of other intellectuals such as his wife Marianne, Georg Jellinek, Ernst Troeltsch, Werner Sombart, Marc Bloch, Robert Michels and György Lukács. Weber also remained active in Verein and the Evangelical Social Congress. His research in that period was focused on economics and legal history.
In 1897 Max Weber Sr. died, two months after a severe quarrel with his son that was never resolved. After this, Weber became increasingly prone to depression, nervousness and insomnia, making it difficult for him to fulfill his duties as a professor. His condition forced him to reduce his teaching and leave unfinished his course in the fall of 1899. After spending months in a sanatorium during the summer and fall of 1900, Weber and his wife travelled to Italy at the end of the year and did not return to Heidelberg until April 1902. He would again withdraw from teaching in 1903 and not return to it till 1919.
Later workAfter 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 Welfare, where he worked with his colleagues Edgar Jaffé and Werner Sombart. His new interests would lie in more fundamental issues of social sciences; his works from this latter period are of primary interest to modern scholars. 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, which became his most famous work and laid the foundations for his later research on the impact of cultures and religions on the development of economic systems. This essay was the only one of his works from that period that was published as a book during his lifetime. Some other of his works written in the first one and a half decades of the 20th century – published posthumously and dedicated primarily from the fields of sociology of religion, economic and legal sociology – are also recognised as among his most important intellectual contributions.
Also in 1904, 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) in St. Louis. Despite his partial recovery, 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. In 1909, disappointed with the Verein, he co-founded the German Sociological Association (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie, or DGS) and served as its first treasurer. He would, however, resign from the DGS in 1912. In 1912, Weber tried to organise a left-wing political party to combine social-democrats and liberals. This attempt was unsuccessful, in part because many liberals feared social-democratic revolutionary ideals.
Political involvements
Max Weber (foreground) in 1917 with Ernst Toller (facing)At the outbreak of World War I, Weber, aged 50, volunteered for service and was appointed as a reserve officer and put in charge of organising the army hospitals in Heidelberg, a role he fulfilled until the end of 1915. Weber's views on the war and the expansion of the German empire changed during the course of the conflict. Early on he supported the nationalist rhetoric and the war effort, believing that the fight against the backward and despotic Russian Empire was justified and that a "liberal imperialism" along the lines of the British model would help Germany to develop a more mature political class. In time, however, Weber became one of the most prominent critics of German expansionism and of the Kaiser's war policies. He publicly attacked the Belgian annexation policy and unrestricted submarine warfare and later supported calls for constitutional reform, democratisation and universal suffrage.
Weber joined the worker and soldier council of Heidelberg in 1918. He then served in the German delegation to the Paris Peace Conference and as advisor to the Confidential Committee for Constitutional Reform, which drafted the Weimar Constitution. Motivated by his understanding of the American model, he advocated a strong, popularly elected presidency as a constitutional counter-balance to the power of the professional bureaucracy. More controversially, he also defended the provisions for emergency presidential powers that became Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. These provisions were later used by Adolf Hitler to subvert the rest of the constitution and institute rule by decree, allowing his regime to suppress opposition and gain dictatorial powers.
Weber also ran, unsuccessfully, for a parliamentary seat, as a member of the liberal German Democratic Party, which he had co-founded. He opposed both the leftist German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, a principled position that defied the political alignments in Germany at that time and which may have prevented Friedrich Ebert, the new social-democratic President of Germany, from appointing Weber as minister or ambassador. Weber commanded widespread respect but relatively little influence. Weber's role in German politics remains controversial to this day.
Last years
Weber's grave in HeidelbergFrustrated with politics, Weber resumed teaching during this time, first at the University of Vienna, then, after 1919, at the University of Munich. His lectures from that period were collected into major works, such as the General Economic History, Science as a Vocation and Politics as a Vocation. In Munich, he headed the first German university institute of sociology, but never held a professorial position in sociology. Many colleagues and students in Munich attacked his response to the German Revolution and some right-wing students held protests in front of his home. Max Weber contracted the Spanish flu and died of pneumonia in Munich on 14 June 1920. At the time of his death, Weber had not finished writing his magnum opus on sociological theory: Economy and Society. His widow Marianne helped prepare it for its publication in 1921–22.
Weber's thought
InspirationsWeber's thinking was strongly influenced by German idealism and particularly by neo-Kantianism, to which he had been exposed through Heinrich Rickert, his professorial colleague at the University of Freiburg. Especially important to Weber's work is the neo-Kantian belief that reality is essentially chaotic and incomprehensible, with all rational order deriving from the way in which the human mind focuses its attention on certain aspects of reality and organises the resulting perceptions. Weber's opinions regarding the methodology of the social sciences show parallels with the work of contemporary neo-Kantian philosopher and pioneering sociologist Georg Simmel.
Weber was also influenced by Kantian ethics, which he nonetheless came to think of as obsolete in a modern age lacking in religious certainties. In this last respect, the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy is evident. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the "deep tension between the Kantian moral imperatives and a Nietzschean diagnosis of the modern cultural world is apparently what gives such a darkly tragic and agnostic shade to Weber's ethical worldview." Though the influence of his mother's Calvinist religiosity is evident throughout Weber's life and work, and though he maintained a deep, life-long interest in the study of religions, Weber was open about the fact that he was personally irreligious.
As a political economist and economic historian, Weber belonged to the "youngest" German historical school of economics, represented by academics such as Gustav von Schmoller and his student Werner Sombart. But, even though Weber's research interests were very much in line with that school, his views on methodology and the theory of value diverged significantly from those of other German historicists and were closer, in fact, to those of Carl Menger and the Austrian School, the traditional rivals of the historical school. (See section on Economics.)
MethodologyUnlike some other classical figures (Comte, Durkheim) Weber did not attempt, consciously, to create any specific set of rules governing social sciences in general, or sociology in particular. Compared to Durkheim and Marx, Weber was more focused on individuals and culture and this is clear in his methodology. Whereas Durkheim focused on the society, Weber concentrated on the individuals and their actions (see structure and action discussion) and whereas Marx argued for the primacy of the material world over the world of ideas, Weber valued ideas as motivating actions of individuals, at least in the big picture.
Sociology, for Max Weber, is:
...a science which attempts the interpretive understanding of social action in order thereby to arrive at a causal explanation of its course and effects.
—Max Weber
Weber was concerned with the question of objectivity and subjectivity. Weber distinguished social action from social behaviour, noting that social action must be understood through how individuals subjectively relate to one another. Study of social action through interpretive means (Verstehen) must be based upon understanding the subjective meaning and purpose that the individual attaches to their actions. Social actions may have easily identifiable and objective means, but much more subjective ends and the understanding of those ends by a scientists is subject to yet another layer of subjective understanding (that of the scientist). Weber noted that the importance of subjectivity in social sciences makes creation of fool-proof, universal laws much more difficult than in natural sciences and that the amount of objective knowledge that social sciences may achieve is precariously limited. Overall, Weber supported the goal of objective science, but he noted that it is an unreachable goal – although one definitely worth striving for.
There is no absolutely "objective" scientific analysis of culture... All knowledge of cultural reality... is always knowledge from particular points of view.... an "objective" analysis of cultural events, which proceeds according to the thesis that the ideal of science is the reduction of empirical reality to "laws," is meaningless... [because]... the knowledge of social laws is not knowledge of social reality but is rather one of the various aids used by our minds for attaining this end.
—Max Weber, "Objectivity" in Social Science, 1897
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 behaviour of purposeful individuals, models which Weber called "ideal types," from which actual historical events will necessarily deviate due to accidental and irrational factors. The analytical constructs of an ideal type never exist in reality, but provide objective benchmarks against which real-life constructs can be measured.
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, 1909
Weber's methodology was developed in the context of a wider debate about methodology of social sciences, the Methodenstreit. Weber's position was close to historicism, as he understood social actions as being heavily tied to particular historical contexts and its analysis required the understanding of subjective motivations of individuals (social actors). Thus Weber's methodology emphasises the use of comparative historical analysis. Therefore, Weber was more interested in explaining how a certain outcome was the result of various historical processes rather than predicting an outcome of those processes in the future.
RationalisationMany scholars have described rationalisation and the question of individual freedom in an increasingly rational society, as the main theme of Weber's work. This theme was situated in the larger context of the relationship between psychological motivations, cultural values and beliefs (primarily, religion) and the structure of the society (usually determined by the economy).
By rationalisation, Weber understood first, the individual cost-benefit calculation, second, the wider, bureaucratic organisation of the organisations and finally, in the more general sense as the opposite of understanding the reality through mystery and magic (disenchantment).
The fate of our times is characterised by rationalisation and intellectualisation and, above all, by the "disenchantment of the world"
—Max Weber
Weber began his studies of the subject 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, shifted human effort towards rational efforts aimed at achieving economic gain. In Protestant religion, Christian piety towards God was expressed through one's secular vocation (secularisation of calling). The rational roots of this doctrine, he argued, soon grew incompatible with and larger than the religious and so the latter were eventually discarded.
Weber continued his investigation into this matter in later works, notably in his studies on bureaucracy and on the classification of legitimate authority into three types – Rational-legal, traditional and charismatic – of which the legitimate (or rational) is the dominant one in the modern world. In these works Weber described what he saw as society's movement towards rationalisation. Similarly, rationalisation could be seen in the economy, with the development of highly rational and calculating capitalism. Weber also saw rationalisation as one of the main factors setting the European West apart from the rest of the world. Rationalisation relied on deep changes in ethics, religion, psychology and culture; changes that first took place in the Western civilisation.
What Weber depicted was not only the secularisation of Western culture, but also and especially the development of modern societies from the viewpoint of rationalisation. The new structures of society were marked by the differentiation of the two functionally intermeshing systems that had taken shape around the organisational cores of the capitalist enterprise and the bureaucratic state apparatus. Weber understood this process as the institutionalisation of purposive-rational economic and administrative action. To the degree that everyday life was affected by this cultural and societal rationalisation, traditional forms of life – which in the early modern period were differentiated primarily according to one's trade – were dissolved.
—Jürgen Habermas, Modernity's Consciousness of Time, 1985,
Features of rationalisation include increasing knowledge, growing impersonality and enhanced control of social and material life. Weber was ambivalent towards rationalisation; while admitting it was responsible for many advances, in particular, freeing humans from traditional, restrictive and illogical social guidelines, he also criticised it for dehumanising individuals as "cogs in the machine" and curtailing their freedom, trapping them in the bureaucratic iron cage of rationality and bureaucracy. Related to rationalisation is the process of disenchantment, in which the world is becoming more explained and less mystical, moving from polytheistic religions to monotheistic ones and finally to the Godless science of modernity. Those processes affect all of society, removing "sublime values... from public life" and making art less creative.
In a dystopian critique of rationalisation, Weber notes that modern society is a product of an individualistic drive of the Reformation, yet at the same time, the society created in this process is less and less welcoming of individualism.
How is it at all possible to salvage any remnants of 'individual' freedom of movement in any sense given this all-powerful trend?
—Max Weber
Sociology of religionWeber's work in the field of sociology of religion started with the essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 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 early Christianity and Islam. His three main themes in the essays were the effect of religious ideas on economic activities, the relation between social stratification and religious ideas and the distinguishable characteristics of Western civilization.
Weber saw religion as one of the core forces in the society. 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 civilisation. 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 the West, 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 systematisation and bureaucratisation of government administration and economic enterprise. 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".
Weber also proposed a socioevolutionary model of religious change, showing that in general, societies have moved from magic to polytheism, then to pantheism, monotheism and finally, ethical monotheism. According to Weber, this evolution occurred as the growing economic stability allowed professionalisation and the evolution of ever more sophisticated priesthood. As societies grew more complex and encompassed different groups, a hierarchy of gods developed and as power in the society became more centralised, the concept of a single, universal God became more popular and desirable.
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of CapitalismMain article: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Cover of the original German edition of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of CapitalismWeber's essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is his most famous work. 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 as part of the rationalisation of the economic system. 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 post-Reformation shift of Europe's economic centre 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 with a more highly developed capitalist economy. Similarly, in societies with different religions, most successful business leaders were Protestant. Weber thus argued that Roman Catholicism impeded the development of the capitalist economy in the West, as did other religions such as Confucianism and Buddhism elsewhere in the world.
The development of the concept of the calling quickly gave to the modern entrepreneur a fabulously clear conscience – and also industrious workers; he gave to his employees as the wages of their ascetic devotion to the calling and of co-operation in his ruthless exploitation of them through capitalism the prospect of eternal salvation.
—Max Weber
Christian religious devotion had historically been accompanied by rejection of mundane affairs, including economic pursuit. 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. Weber argued that there were many reasons to look for the origins of modern capitalism in the religious ideas of the Reformation. In particular, the Protestant ethic (or more specifically, Calvinist ethic) motivated the believers to work hard, be successful in business and reinvest their profits in further development rather than frivolous pleasures. The notion of calling meant that each individual had to take action in order to be saved; just being a member of the Church was not enough. Predestination also reduced antagonising over economic inequality and further, it meant that a material wealth could be taken as a sign of salvation in the afterlife. The believers thus justified pursuit of profit with religion, as instead of being fuelled by morally suspect greed or ambition, their actions were motivated by a highly moral and respected philosophy. This Weber called the "spirit of capitalism": it was the Protestant religious ideology that was behind – and inevitably lead to – the capitalist economic system. This theory is often viewed as a reversal of Marx's thesis that the economic "base" of society determines all other aspects of it.
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: laying the groundwork for a comparative analysis of religion and society.
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 and thus lost its religious connotations.
The Religion of China: Confucianism and TaoismMain 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, especially those aspects which contrasted with Puritanism. His work also questioned why capitalism did not develop in China. He focused on the issues of Chinese urban development, Chinese patrimonialism and officialdom and Chinese religion and philosophy (primarily, Confucianism and Taoism), as the areas in which Chinese development differed most distinctively from the European route.
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 were just means to the final goal and here they were divided by a key difference. Confucianism's 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. Actively working for wealth was unbecoming a proper Confucian. 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.
The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and BuddhismMain 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. Like Confucianism in China, for Weber, Hinduism in India was a barrier for capitalism. The Indian caste system made it very difficult for individuals to advance in the society beyond their caste. Activity, including economic activity, was seen as unimportant in the context of the advancement of the soul.
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 otherworldly 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 beliefs are centered on magic. In Asia, there was no Messianic prophecy to give plan and meaning to the everyday life of educated and uneducated alike. Weber juxtaposed such Messianic prophecies (also called ethical prophecies), notably from the Near East region to the exemplary prophecies found on the Asiatic mainland, focused more on reaching to the educated elites and enlightening them on the proper ways to live one's life, usually with little emphasis on hard work and the material world. 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.
Ancient JudaismMain 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. He contrasted the innerworldly asceticism developed by Western Christianity with mystical contemplation of the kind developed in India. Weber noted that some aspects of Christianity sought to conquer and change the world, rather than withdraw from its imperfections. This fundamental characteristic of Christianity (when compared to Far Eastern religions) stems originally from ancient Jewish prophecy.
Weber noted that Judaism not only fathered Christianity and Islam, but was crucial to the rise of the modern Occidental state; Judaism's influence was as important as Hellenistic and Roman cultures.
Weber's premature death in 1920 prevented him from following his planned analysis of Psalms, the Book of Job, Talmudic Jewry, early Christianity and Islam.
Economy and SocietyMain article: Economy and Society
In his magnum opus, Economy and Society, Weber distinguished three ideal types of religious attitudes: world-flying mysticism, world-rejecting asceticism, and inner-worldly asceticism. He defined magic as a pre-religious activity.
Politics and governmentIn political sociology, one of Weber's most significant contributions is his Politics as a Vocation essay. Therein, Weber unveils the definition of the state as that entity which possesses a delegatable monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force. Weber wrote that politics is the sharing of state's power between various groups, and political leaders are those who wield this power. 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).
Weber distinguished three ideal types of political leadership (alternatively referred to as three types of domination, legitimisation or authority):
1.charismatic domination (familial and religious),
2.traditional domination (patriarchs, patrimonialism, feudalism) and
3.legal domination (modern law and state, bureaucracy).
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. He notes that the instability of charismatic authority forces it to "routinise" 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. 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.
Bureaucratic administration means fundamentally domination through knowledge.
—Max Weber
Weber described many ideal types of public administration and government in his masterpiece Economy and Society (1922). His critical study of the bureaucratisation of society became one of the most enduring parts of his work. It was Weber who began the studies of bureaucracy and whose works led to the popularisation of this term. Many aspects of modern public administration go back to him and a classic, hierarchically organised civil service of the Continental type is called "Weberian civil service". As the most efficient and rational way of organising, bureaucratisation for Weber was the key part of the rational-legal authority and furthermore, he saw it as the key process in the ongoing rationalisation of the Western society.
Weber listed several preconditions for the emergence of the bureaucracy: The growth in space and population being administered, the growth in complexity of the administrative tasks being carried out and the existence of a monetary economy – these resulted in a need for a more efficient administrative system. Development of communication and transportation technologies made more efficient administration possible (and popularly requested) and democratisation and rationalisation of culture resulted in demands that the new system treat everybody equally.
Weber's ideal bureaucracy is characterised by hierarchical organisation, by delineated lines of authority in a fixed area of activity, by action taken (and recorded) on the basis of written rules, by bureaucratic officials needing expert training, by rules being implemented neutrally and by career advancement depending on technical qualifications judged by organisations, not by individuals.
The decisive reason for the advance of the bureaucratic organisation has always been its purely technical superiority over any other form of organisation.
—Max Weber
While recognising bureaucracy as the most efficient form of organisation and even indispensable for the modern state, Weber also saw it as a threat to individual freedoms and the ongoing bureaucratisation as leading to a "polar night of icy darkness", in which increasing rationalisation of human life traps individuals in the aforementioned "iron cage" of bureaucratic, rule-based, rational control. In order to counteract bureaucrats, the system needs entrepreneurs and politicians.
Social stratificationWeber also formulated a three-component theory of stratification, with Social class, Social status and Political party as conceptually distinct elements.
Social class is based on economically determined relationship to the market (owner, renter, employee etc.).
Status class is based on non-economical qualities like honour, prestige and religion.
Party class refers to affiliations in the political domain.
All three dimensions have consequences for what Weber called "life chances" (opportunities to improve one's life).
The cityAs part of his overarching effort to understand the unique development of the Western world, Weber produced a detailed general study of the city as the characteristic locus of the social and economic relations, political arrangements, and ideas that eventually came to define the West. This resulted in a monograph titled The City, which was probably compiled from research conducted in 1911-1913, and which was published posthumously in 1921. In 1924 it was incorporated into the second part of his Economy and Society, as chapter XVI, "The City (Non-legitimate Domination)".
According to Weber, the city as a politically autonomous organization of people living in close proximity, employed in a variety of specialized trades, and physically separated from the surrounding countryside, only fully developed in the West and to a great extent shaped its cultural evolution:
The origin of a rational and inner-worldly ethic is associated in the Occident with the appearance of thinkers and prophets [...] who developed in a social context which was alien to the Asiatic cultures. This context consisted of the political problems engendered by the bourgeois status-group of the city, without which neither Judaism, nor Christianity, nor the development of Hellenistic thinking are conceivable.
— Max Weber
Weber argued that Judaism, early Christianity, theology, and later the political party and modern science, were only possible in the urban context that reached a full development the West alone. He also saw in the history of medieval European cities the rise of a unique form of "non-legitimate domination" that successfully challenged the existing forms of legitimate domination (traditional, charismatic, and rational-legal) that had prevailed until then in the Medieval world. This new domination was based on the great economic and military power wielded by the organized community of city-dwellers ("citizens").
EconomicsWeber regarded himself primarily as a "political economist," and all of his professorial appointments were in economics, though today his contributions in that field are largely overshadowed by his role as a founder of modern sociology. As an economist, Weber belonged to the "youngest" German historical school of economics. The great differences between that school's interests and methods on the one hand and those of the neoclassical school (from which modern mainstream economics largely derives) on the other, explain why Weber's influence on economics today is hard to discern.
Methodological individualismThough his research interests were always in line with those of the German historicists, with a strong emphasis on interpreting economic history, Weber's defence of "methodological individualism" in the social sciences represented an important break with that school and an embracing of many of the arguments that had been made against the historicists by Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian School of economics, in the context of the academic Methodenstreit ("debate over methods") of the late 19th century. The phrase "methodological individualism," which has come into common usage in modern debates about the connection between microeconomics and macroeconomics, was coined by the Austrian-American economist Joseph Schumpeter in 1908 as a way of referring to the views of Weber. According to Weber's theses, social research cannot be fully inductive or descriptive, because understanding some phenomenon implies that the researcher must go beyond mere description and interpret it; interpretation requires classification according to abstract "ideal (pure) types". This, together with his antipositivistic argumentation (see Verstehen), can be taken as a methodological justification for the model of the "rational economic man" (homo economicus), which is at the heart of modern mainstream economics.
Marginalism and psychophysicsUnlike other historicists, Weber also accepted the marginal theory of value (also called "marginalism") and taught it to his students. In 1908, Weber published an article in which he drew a sharp methodological distinction between psychology and economics and attacked the claims that the marginal theory of value in economics reflected the form of the psychological response to stimuli as described by the Weber-Fechner law. Max Weber's article has been cited as a definitive refutation of the dependence of the economic theory of value on the laws of psychophysics by Lionel Robbins, George Stigler, and Friedrich Hayek, though the broader issue of the relation between economics and psychology has come back into the academic debate with the development of "behavioral economics."
Economic historyWeber's best known work in economics concerned the preconditions for capitalist development, particularly the relations between religion and 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. He argued that bureaucratic political and economic systems emerging in the Middle Ages were essential in the rise of modern capitalism (including rational book-keeping and organization of formally free labour), while they were a hindrance in the case of ancient capitalism, which had a different social and political structure based on conquest, slavery, and the coastal city-state. Other contributions include his early work on the economic history of Roman agrarian society (1891) and on the labour relations in Eastern Germany (1892), his analysis of the history of commercial partnerships in the Middle Ages (1889), his critique of Marxism, the discussion of the roles of idealism and materialism in the history of capitalism in his Economy and Society (1922) and his General Economic History (1923), a notable example of the kind of empirical work associated with the German Historical School.
Though today read primarily by sociologists and social philosophers, Weber's work did have a significant influence on Frank Knight, one of the founders of the neoclassical Chicago school of economics, who translated Weber's General Economic History into English in 1927. Knight also wrote in 1956 that Max Weber was the only economist who dealt with the problem of understanding the emergence of modern capitalism "from the angle which alone can yield an answer to such questions, that is, the angle of comparative history in the broad sense."
Economic calculationWeber, like his colleague Werner Sombart, regarded economic calculation and especially the double-entry bookkeeping method of business accounting, as one of the most important forms of rationalisation associated the development of modern capitalism. Weber's preoccupation with the importance of economic calculation led him to develop a critique of socialism as a system that lacked a mechanism for allocating resources efficiently in order to satisfy human needs. Socialist intellectuals like Otto Neurath had realised that in a completely socialised economy, prices would not exist and central planners would have to resort to in-kind (rather than monetary) economic calculation. According to Weber, this type of coordination would be inefficient, especially because it would be incapable of solving the problem of imputation (i.e. of accurately determining the relative values of capital goods). Weber wrote that, under full socialism,
In order to make possible a rational utilisation 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 socialisation. We cannot speak of a rational "planned economy" so long as in this decisive respect we have no instrument for elaborating a rational "plan."
—Max Weber
This argument against socialism was made independently, at about the same time, by Ludwig von Mises. Weber himself had a significant influence on Mises, whom he had befriended when they were both at the University of Vienna in the spring of 1918, and, through Mises, on several other economists associated with the Austrian School in the 20th century. Friedrich Hayek in particular elaborated the arguments of Weber and Mises about economic calculation into a central part of free market economics's intellectual assault on socialism, as well as into a model for the spontaneous coordination of "dispersed knowledge" in markets.
LegacyThe prestige of Max Weber among European social scientists would be difficult to over-estimate. He is widely considered the greatest of German sociologists and... has become a leading influence in European and American thought.
— Hans Heinrich Gerth and Charles Wright Mills, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, 1991
Weber's most influential work was on economic sociology, political sociology, and the sociology of religion. Along with Karl Marx and Émile Durkheim, he is commonly regarded as one of the founders of modern sociology. But whereas Durkheim, following Comte, worked in the positivist tradition, Weber was instrumental in developing an antipositivist, hermeneutic, tradition in the social sciences. In this regard he belongs to a similar tradition as his German colleagues Werner Sombart, Georg Simmel, and Wilhelm Dilthey, who stressed the differences between the methodologies appropriate to the social and the natural sciences.
Weber presented sociology as the science of human social action; action which he separated into traditional, affectional, value-rational and instrumental.
[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 a 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,
In his own time, however, Weber was viewed primarily as a historian and an economist. 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 rationalisation and the bureaucratic price of progress, the role of legitimacy and of violence as the offspring 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.
— Joachim Radkau, Max Weber: A Biography, 2005
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.
Weber has influenced many later social theorists, such as Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, György Lukács and Jürgen Habermas. Different elements of his thought were emphasized by Carl Schmitt, Joseph Schumpeter, Leo Strauss, Hans Morgenthau, and Raymond Aron. According to Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, who had met Weber during his time at the University of Vienna,
The early death of this genius was a great disaster for Germany. Had Weber lived longer, the German people of today would be able to look to this example of an "Aryan" who would not be broken by National Socialism.
—Ludwig von Mises, 1940
Weber's friend, the psychiatrist and existentialist philosopher Karl Jaspers, described him "the greatest German of our era" and his untimely death felt to Jaspers "as if the German world had lost its heart."
Critical responses to WeberWeber's explanations are highly specific to the historical periods he analysed. This makes it more difficult to generalise from his analysis and modify his theories for other circumstances.
Many scholars, however, have disagreed with specific claims Weber makes in his historical analysis. For example, the economist Joseph Schumpeter argued that capitalism did not begin with the Industrial Revolution but in 14th century Italy. In Milan, Venice and Florence the small city-state governments led to the development of the earliest forms of capitalism. In the 16th century Antwerp was a commercial centre of Europe. Also, the predominantly Calvinist country of Scotland did not enjoy the same economic growth as the Netherlands, England and New England. It has been pointed out that the Netherlands, which had a Calvinist majority, industrialised much later in the 19th century than predominantly Catholic Belgium, which was one of the centres of the Industrial Revolution on the European mainland. Emil Kauder expanded Schumpeter's argument by arguing the hypothesis that Calvinism hurt the development of capitalism by leading to the development of the labour theory of value.