Review essay of "Max Webers tragische Soziologie: Aspekte und Perspektiven"

Abstract

[MWS 13.2 (2013) 264-272] ISSN 1470-8078 Review essay of Max Webers tragische Soziologie: Aspekte und Perspektiven1 Hartmann Tyrell Stefan Breuer, Max Webers tragische Soziologie: Aspekte und Perspe ktiven (Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006), 381pp. Paperback ISBN 3-16 148856-6. €59.00. I. In the past few years there have been repeated efforts by German sociologists interested in the work of Max Weber to translate his sociology and conceptual armoury into a 'sociological theory' that can hold its own in current theoretical debate. The most recent trend of this kind is called the 'Weber paradigm', making use of meth odological individualism and multiple levels of analysis in bring ing about a convergence between Weberian concerns and Rational Choice theory. Stefan Breuer, whose has long been deeply involved in the work of Max Weber, has always had great reservations about this 'modernisation' of Max Weber (Guenther Roth). Maybe one should say: he was resistant to the 'seduction' of updating Weberian sociology so that it might be attached to whichever theoretical pro gramme was currently in fashion. Breuer's restrained admiration for Weber was directed primarily at his 'material sociology', of which he has sometimes said that 'its empirical and historical saturation eclipses everything else'. The collection of essays reviewed here is primarily aimed at Weber's material sociology. The core of the col lection lies in essays on the sociology of rule and the sociology of the city—I will deal with these in Section III. It should be added at once that Breuer is well-versed in the ideas and theories of sociology. He has long had a great interest in soci ological theory, and this is carried over into his interest in Max 1. Translated by Keith Tribe.© Max Weber Studies 2013, Clifton House, 17 Malvern Road, London, E8 3LP. Tyrell Review essay 265 Weber. These essays show that Breuer's interest in material sociol ogy are capable of revealing theoretical positions and definitions in Weber that stand in contrast to those subsequently employed, and which are also quite distinct from those in use today. One example in the volume is the essay devoted to the practice of social discipline, placing Weber alongside Gerhard Oestreich and Michel Foucault, ending with an accent upon Luhmann (326ff.). There is another deal ing with organisation and civilisation which places Max Weber with respect to Norbert Elias (349ff.). The point of departure that Breuer takes here is quite remarkable. Breuer finds astonishing 'the degree to which Elias was able to detach himself from the pull of Weber's system' (349); and he uses the autonomy of Elias' standpoint to cor rect some of Weber's one-sidedness. Breuer repeatedly expresses his scepticism of all efforts to tie Weber too closely to his concepts of action and, adopting the standpoint of Elias, writes of the need 'to free the interpretation of Weber from the constraints of methodolog ical individualism, placing more emphasis upon those elements that such a perspective excludes' (359). Moreover, Breuer has a rare knowledge of the 'intellectual climate of Germany before 1933', a knowledge that also draws upon the evo lution of ideas in the nineteenth century. There is throughout this volume a consistent interest in the sources for Weber's writing and sociological concepts. Regarding Weber's sociology of religion, for example, Breuer rightly directs attention to Schopenhauer and to the influence he had upon Eduard Hartmann (see in particular his Das religiöse Bewusstsein der Menschheit im Stufengang seiner Entwickelung, 1882). Here also of relevance is the interest in Weber's relation to his intellectual contemporaries, in particular Weber's 'professional friend ship' with Georg Jellinek. This is raised in an essay which impressively links Jellinek's 'social theory of the state' to Weber's political sociol ogy, while also investigating the impact of Jellinek's book on the Erk lärung der Menschen- und Bürgerrechte on Weber and Troeltsch. Breuer also deals with the 'Germanness' (H. Freyer) of sociology in Germany before and after 1900, tracing a particular 'German line' from Tönnies' Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft through Sombart, Scheler and Simmel to Max Weber. Here it is the after-effects and side-effects of...