Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait

by Reinhard Bendix

Book Overview

The purpose of this book is to make Weber's sociological work more accessible and more thematically coherent than it is either in the original or in translation. This volume is used as an introduction to the study of orignal Weber texts and gives the reader a systematic presentation of Weber's sociological studies.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520031946
• ISBN13: 9780520031944
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 573 Pages
• Weight: 1.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Material and ideal interests directly govern man's conduct

Max Weber was a true independent academic who studied the power struggle among individuals, groups or nations. He was also a true liberal, in the European sense, personally committed to the cause of reason and freedom and the safeguard of the legacy of the Enlightenment against the power-State and the bureaucratization of modern society Society and power A society for him was an arena of competing status groups with their own economic and ideal interests. The all important factor was power, `the possibility of imposing one's will upon the behavior of other persons.' Three forms of domination A charismatic one: power exercised by a leader. This power can be depersonalized by institutionalization of an authority (e.g., a church). A traditional one: power based on the belief of the legitimacy of inherited authority. Patrimonialism is a system where the State is administered like the household of the ruler. Feudalism is based on a contractually fixed fealty. A legal one: a system of judicial and administrative rules valid for all members. The modern State Legal matters, bureaucracy, compulsory jurisdiction and monopolization of the legitimate use of force are the essential characteristics of the modern State. Religious ideas and economic activities As a challenge to Marx, Max Weber showed that man's consciousness is not only determined by his social class, but also by religion. As Calvin said, `man is a tool of the divine will.' Puritanism sought to transform the world. The usefulness of labor was judged by the fruits that signify its favor in the sight of God. The spirit of capitalism is a whole of ideas and habits that favor a rational pursuit of economic gain. In China, land sales and inventions were thought to disturb the ancestral spirits. The patrimonial organization militated against rational administration. Confucianism aimed at self-perfection turning away from material interests. In India, the caste system was a barrier against capitalism, because man has to be obedient to the dharma of his caste. Each life is merely an instant in an unending sequence of lives. Vision Max Weber's somber vision that populations would become prisoners of enormous bureaucratic machines became partly true in some one party totalitarian States. But, those machines fell apart or transformed themselves into capitalist economies. This book contains also valuable historical information (e.g. on the role of the Junkers in Germany). It is a must read for all scholars of sociology and for all those interested in the ideas of a great liberal.

Insightful and well researched

Very well done summary of Max Weber's life and intellectual heritage. A classic that anyone interested in Max Weber's sociology should read.