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In his own words:
On
sociology:"Sociology . . . is a science concerning itself with
the interpretive understanding of social action and thereby
with a causal explanation of its course and
consequences. We shall speak of 'action' insofar as the
acting individual attaches a subjective meaning to his
behavior--be it overt or covert, omission or
acquiescence. Action is 'social' insofar as its
subjective meaning takes account of the behavior of others and
is thereby oriented in its course" (1921/1968,
p.4).
"Within the realm of social
conduct one finds factual regularities, that is, courses of
action which, with a typically identical meaning, are repeated
by the actors or simultaneously occur among numerous
actors. It is with such types of conduct that sociology
is concerned, in contrast to history, which is interested in
the causal connections of important, i.e., fateful, single
events (1921/1968).
"An ideal type is formed by the
one-sided accentuation of one or more points of view and by
the synthesis of a great many diffuse, discrete, more or less
present and occasionally absent concrete individual phenomena,
which are arranged according to those one-sidedly emphasized
viewpoints into a unified analytical construct. . . . In its
conceptual purity, this mental construct . . . cannot be found
empirically anywhere in reality" (1903-1917/1949,
p. 90).
On materialism and
ideationalism:"We have no intention whatever of maintaining such a
foolish and doctrinaire thesis as that the spirit of
capitalism . . . could only have arisen as the result of
certain effects of the Reformation, or even that capitalism as
an economic system is a creation of the Reformation. . . . On
the contrary, we only wish to ascertain whether and to what
extent religious forces have taken part in the qualitative
formation and the quantitative expansion of that spirit over
the world" (1904/1930,
p. 91).
"In view of the tremendous
confusion of interdependent influences between the material
basis, the forms of social and political organization, and the
ideas current in the time of the Reformation, we can only
proceed by investigating whether and at what points certain
correlations between forms of religious belief and practical
ethics can be worked out" (1904/1930,
p. 91).
"Not ideas, but material and ideal
interests, directly govern men's conduct. Yet very
frequently the 'world images' that have been created by
'ideas' have, like switchmen, determined the tracks along
which action has been pushed by the dynamic of interest"
(1946/1958,
p. 280).
On the protestant
ethic:"A man does not 'by nature' wish to earn more and more
money, but simply to live as he is accustomed to live and to
earn as much as is necessary for that purpose. Wherever
modern capitalism has begun its work of increasing the
productivity of human labour by increasing its intensity, it
has encountered the immensely stubborn resistance of this
leading trait of pre-capitalistic labour" (1904/1930,
p. 60).
[For the Calvinist] "The world
exists to serve the glorification of God and for that purpose
alone. The elected Christian is in the world only to increase
this glory of god by fulfilling His commandments to the best
of his ability. But God requires social achievement of
the Christian because He will that social life shall be
organized according to His commandments, in accordance with
that purpose" (1904/1930,
p. 108).
"Waste of time is thus the first
and in principle the deadliest of sins. The span of
human life is infinitely short and precious to make sure of
one's own election. Loss of time through sociability,
idle talk, luxury, even more sleep than is necessary for
health. . . .is worthy of absolute moral condemnation. . .
.[Time] is infinitely valuable because every hour lost is lost
to labour for the glory of God. Thus inactive
contemplation is also valueless, or even directly
reprehensible if it is at the expense of one's daily work. For
it is less pleasing to God than the active performance of His
will in a calling" (1904/1930,
pp. 157-158).
"The religious valuation of
restless, continuous, systematic work in a worldly calling, as
the highest means of asceticism, and at the same time the
surest and most evident proof of rebirth and genuine faith,
must have been the most powerful conceivable lever for the
expansion of . . . the spirit of capitalism" (1946/1958:
172).
"Capitalism is today an immense
cosmos into which the individual is born, and which presents
itself to him, at least as an individual, in so far as he is
involved in the system of market relationships, to conform to
capitalist rules of action" (1904/1930,
p. 54).
On
rationalization:"The great historic process in the development of
religions, the elimination of magic from the world which had
begun with the old Hebrew prophets and, in conjunction with
Hellenistic scientific thought, had repudiated all magical
means to salvation as superstition and sin, came here to its
logical conclusion. The genuine Puritan even rejected all
signs of religious ceremony at the grave and buried his
nearest and dearest without song or ritual in order that no
superstition, no trust in the effects of magical and
sacramental forces on salvation, should creep in" (1904/1930,
p. 105).
"This whole process of
rationalization in the factory and elsewhere, and especially
in the bureaucratic state machine, parallels the
centralization of the material implements of organization in
the hands of the master. Thus, discipline inexorably
takes over ever larger areas as the satisfaction of political
and economic needs is increasingly rationalized. This
universal phenomenon more and more restricts the importance of
charisma and of individually differentiated conduct" (1921/1968,
p. 1156).
On
bureaucracy:"From a purely technical point of view, a bureaucracy
is capable of attaining the highest degree of efficiency, and
is in this sense formally the most rational known means of
exercising authority over human beings. It is superior
to any other form in precision, in stability, in the
stringency of its discipline, and in its reliability. It
thus makes possible a particularly high degree of
calculability of results for the heads of the organization and
for those acting in relation to it. It is finally
superior both in intensive efficiency and in the scope of its
operations and is formally capable of application to all kinds
of administrative tasks (1921/1968,
p. 223).
"The principles of office
hierarchy and of levels of graded authority mean a firmly
ordered system of supe- and subordination in which there is a
supervision of the lower offices by the higher ones" (1946/1958,
p. 197)
"No machinery in the world
functions so precisely as this apparatus of men and, moreover,
so cheaply. . .. Rational calculation . . . reduces every
worker to a cog in this bureaucratic machine and, seeing
himself in this light, he will merely ask how to transform
himself into a somewhat bigger cog. . . . The passion for
bureaucratization drives us to despair" (1921/1968:
liii).
"The needs of mass administration
make it today completely indispensable. The choice is
only between bureaucracy and dilettantism in the field of
administration" (1921/1968,
p. 224).
"When those subject to
bureaucratic control seek to escape the influence of existing
bureaucratic apparatus, this is normally possible only by
creating an organization of their own which is equally subject
to the process of bureaucratization" (1921/1968,
p. 224).
[Socialism] "would mean a
tremendous increase in the importance of professional
bureaucrats" (1921/1968,
p. 224).
"Not summer's bloom lies ahead of
us, but rather a polar night of icy darkness and hardness, no
matter which group may triumph externally now" (1946/1958,
p. 128).
"To this extent increasing
bureaucratization is a function of the increasing possession
of goods used for consumption, and of an increasingly
sophisticated technique for fashioning external life--a
technique which corresponds to the opportunities provided by
such wealth" (1946/1958,
p. 212).
"It is horrible to think that the
world could one day be filled with nothing but those little
cogs, little men clinging to little jobs and striving toward
bigger ones--a state of affairs which is to be seen once more,
as in the Egyptian records, playing an ever increasing part in
the spirit of our present administrative systems, and
especially of its offspring, the students. This passion for
bureaucracy ...is enough to drive one to despair. It is as if
in politics. . . we were to deliberately to become men who
need "order" and nothing but order, become nervous and
cowardly if for one moment this order wavers, and helpless if
they are torn away from their total incorporation in it. That
the world should know no men but these: it is in such an
evolution that we are already caught up, and the great
question is, therefore, not how we can promote and hasten it,
but what can we oppose to this machinery in order to keep a
portion of mankind free from this parceling-out of the soul,
from this supreme mastery of the bureaucratic way of
life."
"The state is a human community
that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use
of force within a given territory"(1946/1958,
p. 78).
"When fully developed, bureaucracy
stands . . . under the principle of sine ira ac studio
(without scorn and bias). Its specific nature which is
welcomed by capitalism develops the more perfectly the more
bureaucracy is 'dehumanized,' the more completely it succeeds
in eliminating from offcial business love, hatred, and all
purely personal, irrational and emotional elements which
escape calculation. This is the specific nature of
bureaucracy and it is appraised as its special virtue" (1946/1958,
pp. 215-16).
"The decisive reason for the
advance of bureaucratic organization has always been its
purely technical superiortiy over any other kind of
organization. The fully developed bureaucratic mechanism
compares with other organizations exactly as does the machine
with the nonmechanical modes of organization" (1946/1958,
p. 214).
"Precision, speed, unambiguity,
knowledge of the files, continuity, discretion, unity, strict
subordination, reduction of friction and of material and
personal costs--these are raised tothe optimum point in the
strictly bureaucratic organization" (1946/1958,
p. 214).
"The appartus (bureaucracy), with
its peculiar impersonal character. . . is easily made to work
for anybody who knows how to gain control over it. A
rationally ordered system of officials continues to function
smoothly after the enemy has occupied the area: he merely
needs to change the top officials" (1946/1958,
p. 229)
On social
evolution:"It is apparent that today we are proceeding towards
an evolution which resembles (the ancient kingdom of Egypt) in
every detail, except that it is built on other foundations, on
technically more perfect, more rationalized, and therefore
much more mechanized foundations. The problem which
besets us now is not: how can this evolution be
changed?--for that is impossible, but: what will come of
it."
"Since asceticism undertook to
remodel the world and to work out its ideals in the world,
material goods have gained an increasing and finally an
inexorable power over the lives of men as at no previous
period in history. Today the spirit of religious
asceticism--whether finally, who knows?--has escaped from the
cage. But victorious capitalism, since it rests on mechanical
foundations, needs its support no longer. The rosy blush of
its laughing heir, the Enlightenment, also seems to be
irretrievably fading, and the idea of duty in one's calling
prowls about in our lives like the ghost of dead religious
beliefs (1904/1930,
pp.181-182).
"In the field of its highest
development, in the United States, the pursuit of wealth,
stripped of its religious and ethical meaning, tends to become
associated with purely mundane passions, which often actually
give it the character of sport (1904/1930,
p. 182).
"No one knows who will live in
this cage in the future, or whether at the end of this
tremendous development entirely new prophets will arise, or
there will be a great rebirth of old ideas and ideals or, if
neither, mechanized petrification embellished with a sort of
convulsive self-importance. For of the last stage of this
cultural development, it might well be truly said:
'Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this
nullity imagines that it has obtained a level of civilization
never before achieved'" (1904/1930,
p. 182).
Politics is a strong and slow
boring of hard boards. It takes both passion and perspective.
Certainly all historical experience confirms the truth--that
man would not have attained the possible unless time and again
he had reached out for the impossible
(1946/1958,
p. 128).
Referencing this
Site
Verstehen:
Max Weber's HomePage is copyrighted by Frank W. Elwell.
Should you wish to quote from this material the format should
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Elwell,
Frank, 1996, The Sociology of Max Weber, Retrieved June
1, 1999 (use actual date),
http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/~felwell/Theorists/Weber/Whome.htm
About this
Site
I originally authored this web
site in 1996 for my students in social theory. I hope
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Robert Malthus, Karl
Marx, Emile
Durkheim, C.
Wright Mills, Robert
K. Merton, Harry
Braverman, Marvin
Harris, Gerhard
Lenski, and Immanuel
Wallerstein.
--Frank W. Elwell (September 22,
2000)
Links by Weber:
Definition
of Sociology
Protestantism
and the Spirit of Capitalism
Max
Weber Studies
Max
Weber on Bureaucracy
Max
Weber on The Spirit of Capitalism
Links About Weber:
The
Coser Essay
Max
Weber's View of Objectivity in Social Science
Marianne
Weber
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