Weber's Ideas Research Articles

Desencantamento do mundo e ética na ação pedagógica: reflexões a partir de Max Weber

Este artigo, de caráter teórico, apresenta ideias do pensamento weberiano, destacando aquelas que fornecem elementos para se pensar a educação na atualidade, sobretudo a partir de sua compreensão da modernidade. Desencantamento do mundo é o conceito-chave de sua sociologia, tomado como referência para refletir sobre o significado que a ciência e o professor podem ter hoje. Autor clássico, a interpretação que Max Weber faz do mundo moderno traz às nossas reflexões temas os mais diversos, influenciando sobremaneira o pensamento e a prática da cultura contemporânea, ao se preocupar em compreender as ações e os valores humanos. Ao estudar o processo de racionalização no Ocidente, provoca discussões na área da ciência, da ética e, correlativamente, na educação, possibilitando ampliarmos nosso entendimento sobre qual o sentido, o significado e o papel que devemos cumprir em relação ao conhecimento e ao ensino. O objetivo principal da educação é proporcionar aos alunos um conteúdo que incentive a liberdade de reflexão. Para isso, é preciso que o professor adote uma ética não partidária na sala de aula, apresentando um conteúdo que não exponha a sua opinião política e, se o fizer, que tenha a honestidade de dizer que o está fazendo. Assim, é de extrema importância que o professor mantenha uma posição "neutra" para que, não só na sala de aula, mas também fora dela, o aluno possa refletir e questionar o que observa, experimenta e decide. Somente assim a conduta do professor estaria condizente com o processo de racionalização de nossa cultura.

Max Weber lesen by Stephen Kalberg Max Weber: Eine Einführung in sein Werk by Hans-Peter Müller Weber: A Short Introduction by Gianfranco Poggi (review)

[MVS 10.2 (2010) 251-260] ISSN 1470-8078 Book Reviews Stephen Kalberg, Max Weber lesen (Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2006), 148 pp. ISBN 3-89942-445-X. €11.00. Hans-Peter Müller, Max Weber: Eine Einführung in sein Werk (Köln, Weimar and Wien: Böhlau Verlag, 2007), 311 pp. ISBN 978-3-8252-295-8. €16.90. Gianfranco Poggi, Weber: A Short Introduction (Cambridge, UK and Maiden, MA 2006: Polity Press), 137pp. ISBN 0-7456-3490-7. £12.99. In the last few years a large number of introductions to the work of Max Weber have appeared. All of these show how, in the context of academic teaching at least, a certain worldwide standardization of understandings of Weber's ideas has been reached, based on a minimum consensus of the academics involved. This also holds for the three introductory volumes under review here. The authors are prominent sociologists, two of them long recognized as scholars of Weber, and the third—the Berlin sociologist Hans-Peter Müller—here presenting a reading of Weber based on many years of teaching. What these three introductory volumes share, alongside short résumés of Weber's biography, is a concentration on methodological issues and the basic sociological concepts, as well as Weber's writings on the sociology of religion, domination and the state. For introductory purposes this is sensible since it is clear that Weber's wide-ranging oeuvre cannot naturally be conveyed in any schematically brief way. It is, however, surprising that unlike Müller, neither Kalberg nor Poggi address the philological and related substantive controversies that have been raging for several decades now around the editorial work of the Gesamtausgabe. Perhaps this is one sign that questions of bibliographical history have still not found much reso nance in Anglophone literature. Certainly the books under review here do note the existence of both a pre-First World War and a post-First World War version of the body of writings that has come to be known as Economy and Society. Yet even Müller, despite addressing this matter, draws no further conclusions from it. My proposal here is that alongside the distinction he draws between orthodox and heterodox styles of Weber-scholarship another distinction must be considered, namely one between 'critical' and 'pre-critical' interpretations of Weber, where 'critical' refers to text-based treatment of his work (cf. 21,224ff.). Taking these three introductory volumes as examples, I'd like to make clear here some consequences that arise from a neglect of these controversies about textual history and to ask whether it is even still possible to write an introduction to Weber without taking note of them. Without fundamentally disputing the suitability of these books for teaching purposes—evidently borne of many years' experience in the ) Max Weber Studies 2011, Clifton House, 17 Malvern Road, London, E8 3LP. 252 Max Weber Studies classroom and manifest in their high didactic quality—I want nonetheless to raise a series of questions in what follows with these queries in mind. Müller's book is the most wide-ranging of the three. His is the product of a study pack created for the Open University of Hagen (FernUniversität Hagen) and used successfully for distance-learning purposes. Unlike Kalberg and Poggi, Müller is concerned to produce as an encompassing an account of Weber's work as possible, although he does not consider either Weber7s pre-1903 writings or any of the various versions of Weber's handbook article on the Agrarian Conditions of Antiquity, where Weber7s gradual transition to a comparative-historical mode of approach becomes clear. Weber7s multifaceted study of The City and sociology of law are also only cur sorily mentioned by Müller, and the question of their status in the history of Weber's corpus is left unelucidated (236-47). This is explained by Müller's basic decision to arrange Weber7s work around 'systematic' rather than 'genealogical' criteria. His claim is for a 'coherent reading that does not do violence to the sometimes contradic tory array of differences between author and work but that nevertheless outlines the basic coordinates of his thought' (9). Whether Müller...

Power and the Durability of Poverty: A Critical Exploration of the Links between Culture, Marginality and Chronic Poverty

Building on approaches that adopt what might be called a ‘relational’ approach to poverty, and using recurring case-studies from India, this paper examines poverty as an outcome of the historical and contemporary dynamics of capitalism – including processes of accumulation, dispossession, differentiation and exploitation; but equally, considers the social mechanisms, categories and identities which perpetuate inequality and facilitate relations of exploitation. The paper adopts an approach (drawing on Charles Tilly) that combines an examination of exploitation with Weberian ideas of social closure. In this way, the paper aims to show that ‘adverse incorporation’ and ‘social exclusion’ are not alternative or competing frameworks: the excluded are simultaneously dominated and excluded.A second aim is to integrate a multi-dimensional understanding of power – as domination, patronage, and political representation – into the analysis of poverty, drawing on the work of Steven Lukes, Pierre Bourdieu, and Arjun Appadurai; and a third aim is to see how incorporating power can help analyse different approaches to poverty reduction ranging from anti-poverty programmes and political decentralisation to mainstream party political processes.In developing the argument the paper focuses on the interlocking circumstances of chronically poor cultivators living in deforested uplands, indebted migrant casual labourers on the urban fringes, and the social identities of adivasis and dalits (‘tribals’ and ‘untouchables’) subordinated in Indian society. This both highlights particular spatial and social inequalities in India, and reflects on the cultural construction of power; its effects on material well-being and agency, and on the opportunities and constraints in struggles for political representation.

Democracy, Size of Bureaucracy, and Economic Growth: Evidence from Russian Regions

The paper considers the impact of political institutions on economic growth applying the case of Russian regions in 2000-2004. First, it studies the influence of democracy on the economic performance, providing evidence for non-linear relation between democracy and economic growth. Regions with high level of democracy, as well as strong autocracies, perform better than hybrid regimes. Second, the paper considers the influence of the size of bureaucracy on economic outcomes and rather confirms the grabbing hand view on bureaucracy than the Weberian ideas: in Russia increase of the size of bureaucracy is associated with a decline of economic performance. Moreover, it analyzes the potential interaction between political regime and the size of bureaucracy as factors of economic growth, but does not establish any robust results.

Closure and Anti-closure: Study on Inter-ethnic Competition in the Hong Kong Rice Trade

The Chinese diaspora is often treated as homogeneous while questions related to inter-ethnic conflict are seldom raised. This paper uses Schumpeter's entrepreneurial theory, especially “the creation of a monopoly position” concept, to merge with Weber's idea of closure and anti-closure in cross-examining inter-ethnic competition and tension in Chinese societies. This paper studies the rice trade in Hong Kong—a business that relies heavily on multi-layered distribution networks and is a conduit for international trade. Key findings include entrepreneurial drive as being the main factor in mobilizing different ethnic groups to create a quasi-monopoly position. Those excluded have tried to mobilize their ethnic identity for anti-closure.

Suggestions for a Redefinition of Charisma

This special issue examines charisma in the Chinese world and shows that the concept is applicable in a non-European-derived religious context. At the same time, these studies have required certain distinctions and emphases in defining what charisma is. In this they contribute to its general analysis. This article draws out their contribution by placing them within general sociological developments of Weber's original idea, linking political with religious charisma. It ends with a programmatic statement of what these Chinese studies show to be fruitful ways of describing and analyzing modern charisma in general, and concludes with a normative question, contrasting good charisma, which is accountable, with bad charisma.

Public health and palliative care: principles into practice?

Public health approaches to palliative care have a valuable contribution to make in understanding and developing community capacity related to death, dying, loss and care, acknowledging that carers of the dying and bereaved are an important group who have their own significant needs in end-of-life care. Drawing upon a sociological framework, this article suggests that an even greater contribution is possible by an emphasis upon understanding lay and community logic within a social context. In particular, the article examines an emerging but significant shift to public health approaches in the ‘developing world’ and the ‘developed world’. It is argued that such approaches can contribute to a much broader agenda and potential for palliative care. Some obstacles to achieving this considerable potential are also noted. These relate to imbalances of power between a number of groups including medicine, palliative care, socio-cultural scientists and, not least, communities themselves. It is concluded that Weber's ideas about understanding may have much to offer in broadening out the principles of a palliative care that works with, and for, communities.

Wealth and the Capitalist Spirit

The wealth distribution in the U.S. is more unequal than either the income or earnings distribution, a fact current models of saving behavior have difficulty explaining. Using Max Weber's (1905) idea that individuals may have a 'capitalist spirit', I construct and simulate a model where individuals accumulate wealth for its own sake rather than as deferred consumption. Including capitalist-spirit preferences in a simple life cycle model, with no other modifications, generates a skewness of wealth consistent with that observed in the U.S. economy. Furthermore, capitalist-spirit preferences provide a way to generate decreasing risk aversion with increases in wealth without resorting to idiosyncratic rates of time preference.

The Ups and Downs of Bureaucratic Organization

Why do democracies give birth to bureaucracies and bureaucrats? How and why has a seemingly undesirable and unviable organizational form weathered relentless criticism over many years, and why do some see it experiencing a renaissance? Normative democratic theory, theories of formal organizations, and Weber's ideas are used in this essay to explore debureaucratization efforts since the late 1970s and the rediscovery of bureaucracy since the mid 1990s. One conclusion is that there has not been a monotonic development toward bureaucratization, as argued by Weber, or debureaucratization, as argued by his critics. Several normative and organizational components have coexisted; the significance of each component and their relationships has varied over time. Although elements of a theoretical framework are suggested, no great optimism for a comprehensive theory of bureaucratization and debureaucratization is offered. Institutions, agency, and macro forces all matter, but there is no agreement regarding the conditions under which one factor matters more than the others.

The Weber Thesis and Economic Historians

One of the most exciting and most discussed economic theories is the one proposed by Max Weber in his essay The Protestant Ethic and the `Spiriti of Capitalism (1904-1905). According to Weber, the Protestant ethic, a mode of behaviour whereby ascetic ways of life were motivated by Protestant theological ideas, had changed during the previous century into a 'spirit' of capitalism, a new lifestyle or ethos, in which hard work or accumulation could only be motivated with the most commonplace ideas about work and accumulation being their own rewards. Unfortunately, his argument was too complicated for his contemporary readers and was simplified along the Iines of an older model to that of the theory which we nowadays recognize as the Weber Thesis. This simplified version claims that Protestant religion (or the Reformation) was the cause of (or at least the most suitable religion for) Western capitalism. For some reason this latter version, which has lost ali contact with the historicity of Weber's concepts, has satisfied most social scientists. The case of economic historians is, however, quite different. The so-called Weber Thesis has been the target of criticism and protests from the ranks of economic historians throughout most the twentieth century. It is interesting to investigate how successful economic historians have been in their long dur& criticism of the Weber Thesis and if they have succeeded in bringing into the open items originally included in Weber's own thought about the change from the Protestant ethic to the ispirif of capitalism. Especially interesting is whether economic historians have used the more historical categories already proposed by Weber instead of the more universal categories and concepts preferred by other social scientists. Furthermore, does the criticism of the Weber Thesis imply that economic historians have had a better idea of what Weber thought as compared with other social scientists? Recently, however, a more toierant, even accepting, view of the Weber Thesis appears to have emerged within the economic historical literature. As well-known examples one could mention David Landes and Niall Ferguson, who have recently supported the idea that, because culture makes all the difference, also Weber's idea about religious attitudes as the catalyst for the rise of capitalism in the West should be given serious thought.

The Weber Thesis and Economic Historians

One of the most exciting and most discussed economic theories is the one proposed by Max Weber in his essay The Protestant Ethic and the 'Spirit' of Capitalism (1904–1905). According to Weber, the Protestant ethic, a mode of behaviour whereby ascetic ways of life were motivated by Protestant theological ideas, had changed during the previous century into a 'spirit' of capitalism, a new lifestyle or ethos, in which hard work or accumulation could only be motivated with the most commonplace ideas about work and accumulation being their own rewards. Unfortunately, his argument was too complicated for his contemporary readers and was simplified along the lines of an older model to that of the theory which we nowadays recognize as the Weber Thesis. This simplified version claims that Protestant religion (or the Reformation) was the cause of (or at least the most suitable religion for) Western capitalism. For some reason this latter version, which has lost all contact with the historicity of Weber's concepts, has satisfied most social scientists. The case of economic historians is, however, quite different. The so-called Weber Thesis has been the target of criticism and protests from the ranks of economic historians throughout most the twentieth century. It is interesting to investigate how successful economic historians have been in their long durée criticism of the Weber Thesis and if they have succeeded in bringing into the open items originally included in Weber's own thought about the change from the Protestant ethic to the 'spirit' of capitalism. Especially interesting is whether economic historians have used the more historical categories already proposed by Weber instead of the more universal categories and concepts preferred by other social scientists. Furthermore, does the criticism of the Weber Thesis imply that economic historians have had a better idea of what Weber thought as compared with other social scientists? Recently, however, a more tolerant, even accepting, view of the Weber Thesis appears to have emerged within the economic historical literature. As well-known examples one could mention David Landes and Niall Ferguson, who have recently supported the idea that, because culture makes all the difference, also Weber's idea about religious attitudes as the catalyst for the rise of capitalism in the West should be given serious thought.

Max Weber's Politics of Civil Society by Sung Ho Kim (review)

Book Reviews 259 Despite all these critical remarks, the merits of the book are obvious. The reader will find particular value in the observations on Weber's writing process (pp. 173ff.) as well as in Radkau's explanations of the way Weber finds his questions and themes of research. This can be noticed especially in the chapter on The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (pp. 316ff.), which is one of the book's best chapters. It has often been stated that Weber's Protestant Ethic contains some biographical aspects. Radkau manages to describe their implications in a colourful way. Not the least important result of this is that he points out two important things. The first one is his hint on Weber's—like everyone's—deepest desire, a 'longing for deliverance' (p. 221). The second is his consideration of an aspect that has mostly been either ignored or mis understood, namely the question of Weber's own religiosity. Radkau is surely right in saying 'Weber's own religiosity is the biggest puzzle of the entire Weber research' (p. 805). There is one final question remaining: does this imposing biography bring Weber closer to us? The answer is both yes and no. Radkau discloses many inaccessible or unknown aspects of Weber, but all the pieces of this puzzle do not or will not fit into a consistent portrait. Maybe this is not possible at all, because Weberis personality is full of ambiguity—like the personality of every great thinker. Andreas Anter Leipzig University Sung Ho Kim, Max Weber's Politics of Civil Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 189 + references + index. ISBN 0-5218-205-7X. £45 (hbk). Max Weber's political thought and political sociology have probably received less attention than other well-known aspects of his thought, such as the work on bureau cracy, the sociology of religion, historical sociology, problems in the philosophy of science, or even economic sociology. The great exception to this generalization is, of course, the work of Wolfgang Mommsen, starting with Max Weber and German Poli tics (1959) and continuing with several books and essays. Wilhelm Hennis offered an important alternative political interpretation in Max Weber's Central Question (1987), elaborated on subsequently in a series of essays. Weber's ideas have also attracted attention in political theory and liberal-democratic thought, as with David Beetham's Max Weber and the Theory of Modern Politics (1974) and Peter Bremer's Max Weber and Democratic Politics (1996). Perhaps because of the unsettled nature of these discus sions and the controversies they have provoked, there is a sense that the field is open to new inquiries and that the entire range of Weber's thinking on political topics has not been fully explored. In his important study Sung Ho Kim enters this contested terrain with a thesis about Weber's little-noted contribution to the 'politics of civil society'. Kim is surely justified in suggesting that this dimension of Weber's thought has been ignored or misunderstood, linking the deficit in comprehension surprisingly to a kind of myopia regarding Weber's understanding of American social and religious life. Professor Kim's argument is that for Weber, a modern liberal-democratic politics depends on creating and sustaining a certain kind of 'moral personality', the Beruf smensch or 'person of vocation'. Socially, this kind of person and the ethos it repre sents is made possible only by a particular form of civil society, not the bürgerliche© Max Weber Studies 2008. 260 Max Weber Studies Gesellschaft of Hegelian thought, but the Sektengesellschaft of Weber's investigations, a civil society based on sects that he found in the social life of ascetic Protestantism. Not just any kind of voluntaristic associational activity characterizes this variant of civil society, but rather activity that involves the selection and moral testing of group members. A robust, authentic civil society thus requires a specific social construction of the modern self, a particular kind of 'characterology'. Much of the discussion in the book's six chapters is concerned with explaining the rationale, meaning, conse quences and political implications of this essential claim. The road to Weber's conception of civil society...

Much More than a Mere Translation: Talcott Parsons's Translation into English of Max Weber's "Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus": An Essay in Intellectual History

Abstract: The essay focuses on the young Parsons, discussing his translation of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (first published in 1930). Parsons's understanding of Weber in his Dr. phil. dissertation is one backdrop to his translation, whereas another is American sociology in the late 1920s. In my view, Parsons's comprehension of Weber's methodology as used in The Protestant Ethic is closer to Weber's original than that of the recent retranslation published in 2002. As an accomplishment fitting his intellectual biography, Parsons's work in the 1930s rescued Weber's thought from certain misconception at the hands of the Nazis. Resume: Cet essai rend compte de la pensee du jeune Talcott Parsons, de maniere d'analyse de sa traduction en l'anglais de Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. En relation de cette traduction par Parsons, il est important de se rappeler que Parsons a prepare son these a Heidelberg sur l'idee du capitalisme de Weber, et d'ailleurs qu'on considere par contexte que la sociologie americaine dans les annees 1920 etait forcement liee au utilitarisme darwiniste de Herbert Spencer ou suivit la tradition positiviste daus laquelle les travaux de Weber etaient manifestement meconnues. Je vais presenter l'evidence que la comprehension de la methodologie sociologique de Weber qu'on peut trouver dans la traduction de Parsons etait beaucoup plus satisfaisante que celui des autres traductions qui ont ete faites depuis 1930, meme celui de 2002. Un effort admirable de Parsons dans les annees 1930 dtait qu'il a sauve par adaptation en anglais l'oeuvre de Weber dont la pensee etait menacee d'atre detruite ou deformee en Allemagne par les Nazi. ********** The translation of Max Weber's classic The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism has never been dealt with as an achievement in its own right (Weber 1920, Weber 1930). (1) Instead, various reissues of Parsons's translation have been dismissive of his accomplishment (e.g., Giddens 1976). The author of the recent retranslation, Stephen Kalberg, had this to say about his reasons for deeming Parsons's translation dated: [W]hereas the 1930 translation of PE was oriented mainly to scholars and students steeped in a liberal arts canon, today's readership is more general and less acquainted with the great works of the past. This new translation is long overdue. (Kalberg 2002: v) Despite such judgement, the question must be raised whether Parsons's translation not only commands value, but also outshines the more recent retranslation. As for the history of sociology, it should be remembered that Parsons's translation of The Protestant Ethic helped rectify some flagrant misinterpretations of Weber in the late 1920s. The only two accounts aptly appreciating Weber's work in the English-language world were Frank H. Knight's translation of General Econonomic History (Weber, 1927) and Richard Tawney's Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (Tawney, 1926). Parsons, who was familiar with Tawney's interpretation but was also aware that Tawney had misunderstood Weber's idea of the historical individual, invited Tawney to write the introduction of the 1930 translation. From the standpoint of contemporary sociology, the question arises whether Parsons, as a translator of Weber's The Protestant Ethic, was better able to understand Weberian methodology than his successor. The Problem: Parsons's Translation Then and Now My paper raises three issues. One is that Parsons's translation had a role to play in his understanding of Weber's theory of capitalism. His Dr. phil. dissertation delivered at Heidelberg University in 1927, an endeavour that dealt with Max Weber and Werner Sombart (another German who analysed the origin of capitalism through economic history), was written in German and in English. The clue is that the Dr. phil. thesis accepted by the Philosophische Fakultat in 1927 (2) and published, according to Heidelberg rules, in The Journal of Political Economy in two parts in 1928 and 1929, differed from the second--indeed earlier--endeavour to write a thesis based on his reading Weber in the original. …

Identifying identities: performance‐driven, but professional public managers

PurposeThis paper examines the effects of performance driven public services on managerial behaviour and the values that influence individual actions.Design/methodology/approachThe approach is historical/institutional within a constructed theoretical frameworkFindingsFuelled by the “new public management” movement, public managers are forced to act in performance‐driven ways and instruments like “performance contracts” and “performance‐related pay” are being used to improve managerial behaviour and the professionalism of public officials. Consequently, public managers have acquired personal stakes in public organizations because when they meet organizational targets, they reap financial rewards. More efficiency, lower costs, and less waste, more responsiveness to customers, and increased flexibility are perceived to be good for society. These changes, however, are more than instrumental. They are about changing identities and changing the meaning of acting as a public official. Traditional Weberian ideas about how such organizing furthers the public good have been replaced by a performance‐driven conception of public management, which is strong on organizing, but weak on the public good. The paper concludes that professional public managers must be judged within the context of the “res publica”.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the debate about professionalism within the context of NPM and whether this is compatible with a view of public service as serving the public interest

Cosmopolitanism and the National Opera: Weber's Der Freischütz

Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz reflects competing definitions of national identity at a crossroads in German history. The historiography of the opera reveals a contrast between the opera's reception as quintessentially German and its interpretation as an example of cosmopolitanism, particularly in its dependence on French operatic models. Weber's own ideas about German opera represent a cosmopolitanism typical of the German Enlightenment, defining Germany's cultural mission as a universalist endeavor. For Weber, the “German” and the “cosmopolitan” were practically identical. The realization of these ideals in Der Freischütz supports multiple, even contradictory, intepretations of its status as “national opera.”

Socialinės tvarkos problema šiuolaikinėje racionalaus pasirinkimo prieigoje ir Maxo Weberio suprantančioje sociologijoje

The idea that the utilitarian explanation of social order is dead, established in Talcott Parsons’ major work „The Structure of Social Action“, had been predominating among sociologists for a long time. Indeed, Parsons was commonly thought to be the one who buried the utilitarian explanation. The situation changed after the rise of Rational Choice Approach which could be called a neo-utilitarian social theory. It reanimated utilitarian explanation of social order, recycling it in the framework of the game theory. This article (1) profiles methodological singularity of the neo-utilitarian explanation by describing it as „protosociological“ as opposed to sociological (empirical) application of the rational choice theory; (2) discloses and criticizes the implicit assumption of Parson’s „convergence thesis“ that the problem of social order was conceived in the same way in all significant contributions of the classical sociological tradition; (3) compares Weberian ideas on social order with those in the neoutilitarian works and discusses the significance of Max Weber’s theoretical legacy for the current work on the problem of social order.

The Max Weber dictionary: key words and central concepts

Max Weber is one of the world's most important social scientists, but he is also one of the most notoriously difficult to understand. This revised, updated, and expanded edition of The Max Weber Dictionary reflects up-to-the-moment threads of inquiry and introduces the most recent translations and references. Additionally, the authors include new entries designed to help researchers use Weber's ideas in their own work; they illuminate how Weber himself thought theorizing should occur and how he went about constructing a theory. More than an elementary dictionary, however, this work makes a contribution to the general culture and legacy of Weber's work. In addition to entries on broad topics like religion, law, and the West, the completed German definitive edition of Weber's work (Max Weber Gesamtausgabe) necessitated a wealth of new entries and added information on topics like pragmatism and race and racism. Every entry in the dictionary delves into Weber scholarship and acts as a point of departure for discussion and research. As such, this book will be an invaluable resource to general readers, students, and scholars alike.

The Creation of the Sacred Text: Talcott Parsons Translates "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism"

This paper investigates the social circumstances and construction of Talcott Parsons' translation of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Parsons' early reading of Weber was conditioned by his interest in the problem of capitalism. His conceptual choices as a translator often reflected this interest. However, the translation of Weber's most famous work attributed to him, a complicated three-year project, was not his original submission and intended text, but rather a version modified by editorial fiat and correction under the guidance of Stanley Unwin and R.H. Tawney. The result of the intervention was actually an 'incorrect correction', a less satisfactory published translation than Parsons' original, diminished in subtlety, texture, emphasis and meaning, with an indeterminate effect on the reception of Weber's ideas. Some of the criticism of Parsons' work, though not all of it, has thus been misplaced. Notwithstanding the vagaries of 'authorship' illustrated in this episode, translation is both a social and a conceptual act and an opportunity for rereading and on occasion creatively misreading canonical texts.

Personal Dilemma or Intellectual Influence? The Relationship between Hannah Arendt and Max Weber

[MWS 5.1 (2005) 125-130] ISSN 1470-8078 Personal Dilemma or Intellectual Influence? The Relationship between Hannah Arendt and Max Weber* Peter Baehr Tuija Parvikko contends that Weber had a significant impact on Arendt's thought. I suggest that this view is problematic on at least two counts. The first is specific and concerns Arendt's negative attitude towards the ideal type. The second is general: by focusing on a couple of vague family resemblances between the ideas of Weber and Arendt, Dr Parvikko ignores the host of antinomies that are far more conspicuous and signifi cant. In fact, Arendt was anti-Weberian on all vital political axes of her thought. Before I briefly examine these issues, it is worth clarifying Arendt's complex relationship to her mentor Karl Jaspers. Tangled up in blue: Arendt, Jaspers, Weber Tuija Parvikko says that 'Arendt's debt to Weber can best be traced' from her correspondence with Jaspers. 'But alas, it does not tell us anything precise of the dimensions of Weber's thinking that inspired her the most, giving us only a general impression that Jaspers repeatedly encouraged Arendt to read Weber' (p. 236). But that assumes the very point Parvikko wishes to establish: that Arendt was indeed 'inspired' by Weber. A close reading of the Arendt-Jaspers correspondence shows something quite different. It is well known that Jaspers was awe-struck by Weber as both scholar and man of integrity (at least, that is, until he found out about Weber's sexual relationship with Else Jaffé). On numerous instances, he sought to press Weber's ideas on Arendt. How did she respond? Arendt never doubted that Weber was a forceful patriot and a brilliant 'histo rian' . But she faced a dilemma. On the one hand, her political project and reflexes were entirely different from Weber's. So, too, was her ontology, which was phenomenological in the strong sense and a far cry from neo Kantianism. On the other hand, she knew that Jaspers' emotional invest * A Rejoinder to Tuija Parvikko's 'A Note on Max Weber's Impact on Hannah Arendt's Thought', Max Weber Studies 4.2 (July 2004), 235-52.© Max Weber Studies 2005, Department of Applied Social Sciences, London Metropolitan University, Old Castle Street, London El 7NT, UK. 126 Max Weber Studies ment in Weber was beyond negotiation. For Jaspers, Weber was not only a great existentialist thinker. He was also a condensed symbol of that other Germany—patriotic but European, rational, liberal and humane— that had been destroyed with the coming of the Third Reich. Weber, in short, was the embodiment of the true 'German essence'.1 To confront Jaspers on Weber directly, to show that in the areas that most mattered to her Weber's thought was either repugnant or irrelevant, would have strained a friendship that Arendt held dear. She would not risk this. As I have detailed at length elsewhere,2 Arendt had every reason to believe that even the smallest criticism would provoke a volcanic response. Here let me give only one example. In a footnote to chapter 6 of The Human Condition, Arendt observed that 'despite some errors in detail which by now have been corrected', Weber was 'the only historian' to have raised 'with the depth and relevance corresponding to its importance' the impli cations of the loss of the certitudo salutis for modern humanity.3 Arendt was praising Weber. Yet in a letter to her of 1 December, 1960, con gratulating Arendt on the German publication of the Vita Activa, Jaspers homes in on this footnote—and devotes almost half the letter to its impli cations. He is incredulous about Arendt's remarks on Weber's 'errors in detail' and responds: The point is not unimportant to me, because what is involved here is the essence of Max Weber's scholarly achievement. Max Weber may be subject to correction in many other works, if one cares to express it that way, and I have my objections to raise with him, too, as I did during his lifetime. But in this one work (and this is not the case with his other volumes on the sociology of religion) one has...

Obituary: Professor Dr DLitt (h.c.) Wolfgang J. Mommsen 5 November, 1930-11 August, 2004

[MWS 5.1 (2005) 113-117] ISSN 1470-8078 Obituary: Professor Dr DLitt (h.c.) Wolfgang J. Mommsen 5 November, 1930-11 August, 2004 Gangolf Hübinger In a 1971 collection Die Großen in Weltgeschichte Wolfgang J. Mommsen used the title 'A liberal in despair' for his article on Max Weber. This well describes the intellectual centre around which turned the historian Mommsen's massive scientific achievement, his dedication to the Max Weber Gesamtausgabe edition, and his spontaneous political interven tions. 'In despair' was how Mommsen analysed the profound structural change undergone by the liberal and elite-educated middle-class citi zenry in the mass society of industrial capitalism and democratic plural ism. In Max Weber Mommsen had chosen a durable and challenging explorer and interpreter of the uncharted territory of modern political conflict and its historical origins. His path-breaking dissertation appeared in English translation (Max Weber and German Politics, 1890-1920, Uni versity of Chicago Press) in 1984 at a time when Weber's international reputation had reached a high point. It is difficult to imagine that the first German edition of Max Weber und die deutsche Politik was written in an atmosphere where it was only with difficulty that a way had to be opened up for an intellectual debate with Weber. Mommsen also exam ined most critically the 'decisionist' theory of modern domination and what it could mean for democracy in Germany after the Second World War. Weber showed him how to place national-historical questions in a universal-historical perspective. The second, and significantly enlarged, 1974 edition of his Weber book profited from this and from new sources; the English translation was based on this second edition. Mommsen gave a very influential lecture on 'Max Weber's idea of universal history' at the International Historians' Conference of 1985. Mommsen saw in Weber the most attractive and unrivalled capacity to analyse the ideal and material driving forces of world-historical change. This led him to an ever new and lifetime's fascination with Max Weber. In selecting his own historical themes Wolfgang J. Mommsen pre ferred to adopt Weber's viewpoint, though less so his critical conceptual methods. He did not wish to give up the narrative element of history© Max Weber Studies 2005, Department of Applied Social Sciences, London Metropolitan University, Old Castle Street, London El 7NT, UK. 114 Max Weber Studies writing. His preferred period was the German Empire with its half constitutional structure of the political system, its impetuous but unpro fessional striving for world power of its political elites, and the new nationalism of the middle classes. Mommsen analysed this constellation using a carefully worked out comparative viewpoint of the liberal impe rialism of Great Britain. Mommsen, like his great-grandfather Theodor Mommsen and his student Max Weber, took the British Empire with its liberalism and well developed sense of power as the point of reference against which German politics had to be measured. A typical essay from the 1970s was entitled 'Changes in the liberal idea in the period of imperialism'. Next to politics, issues in the cultural and scientific development of Wilhelmine Germany gained increasing attention. He concluded a sab batical as fellow at the History College in Munich in 1996 with an impor tant volume on 'the role of intellectuals, artists and writers in the First World War'. Mommsen's penetrating publications on Max Weber and his contemporaries raised the profile of the cultural history of the period. In the autumn of 1984 he organized 'Max Weber and his Contemporaries' — probably the most enduring of the many international conferences he ran at the German Historical Institute in London. This brought together international Weber experts and it accompanied the first volume of the new Max Weber Gesamtausgabe. With the appearance of Schriften und Reden zur Politik im Weltkrieg 1914-1918 (MWG 1/15) in autumn 1984 began the great undertaking that so far is half completed, and for which Mommsen and his Düsseldorf work centre have been indispensable. As a co-worker in the first volume I myself under Mommsen's direction have been entrusted with this type of classic edition and its significance for paradigm conflicts in...