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Thinker · TH-0290

Max Weber

Max Weber was a German sociologist, economist and political theorist, regarded as one of the founders of modern sociology. He argued that the social…

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Also known as Maximilian Karl Emil Weber

1864 – 1920 · Erfurt, Berlin, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Munich (Germany)

Traditions: Modern European

Max Weber was a German sociologist, economist and political theorist, regarded as one of the founders of modern sociology. He argued that the social sciences must combine causal explanation with interpretive understanding (Verstehen) of the meanings that actions have for those who perform them. His studies of religion and capitalism, bureaucracy, authority and the rationalisation of modern life remain central to the philosophy of social science.

Key ideas

  • Social action must be understood through the meanings agents attach to it, as well as explained causally.
  • Ideal types are deliberately one-sided models that help organise and compare social phenomena.
  • He distinguished instrumental rationality from value rationality, and traced the rationalisation and 'disenchantment' of the modern world.
  • The state is the community that successfully claims a monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a territory.

Major works

  • The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus, 1904–05)
  • Science as a Vocation (Wissenschaft als Beruf, lecture 1917)
  • Politics as a Vocation (Politik als Beruf, 1919)
  • Economy and Society (Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 1922, posthumous)

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