Max Weber

From Geography

Max Weber (1864 – 1920) was a German jurist, historian, political economist and best known as one of the leading scholars and founders of modern sociology. At the age of eighteen (1882) he enrolled in the University of Heidelberg as a law student. In 1884 Weber moved to Berlin where he also followed courses in economics and medieval history. In Berlin he earned his law doctorate in 1889 by writing a doctoral dissertation on legal history. Two years later he completed his 'Habilitationsschrift' and became qualified as German professor with a study on the agricultural history of Rome (Radkau, 2009). In his career Max Weber dealt with a wide range of subjects, both theoretical and methodological. This made him a role model for many other social scientists. Max Weber defined sociology as a science that wants to understand and causally explain social action (Campbell, 1981).

Max Weber was one of the key thinkers of the instrumental rationalist action theory. This contains the analysis of social action in order to gain access to social reality. According to the action theory human beings are intentional and they have reasons for their actions, they are goal oriented. Their actions are goal rational. Max Weber defined four ideal types of rationality; choosing the means which you believe that are the best.

1. Traditional action (by tradition, no reason)

2. Affectual action (by emotion, not rational)

3. Value action (by values, norm-based)

4. Goal action (by purpose, highest form of rationality)

These ideal types of rationality are needed in order to understand the actions of other people. This understanding is called verstehen and contents the understanding of human behavior by empathize or interpret their meaning (Swedberg, 2005). Max Weber’s verstehen emphasizes the importance he ascribed to the concept of meaningful individual action in his theory of society (Campbell, 1981). This means he finds that only individuals can act and groups (e.g. states) can not. According to Max Weber the biggest part of social action are the unintended consequences of intentional action.

References

Campbell, T. (1981). Seven Theories of Human Society. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Radkau, J. (2009). Max Weber: A Biography. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Swedberg, R. (2005). The Max Weber Dictionary. Standford: Standford University Press.

Published by Inge Schoenmakers & Lotte Brouwer