Weber I. Early Life of Max Weber born in Prussia on April 21,1864 eldest son of Max Weber Sr. who is a member of a National Liberal Party and Helene (Fallenstein) Weber. He is considered the father of modern sociology. His father, Max Weber Sr., was a politically active lawyer with a penchant for “earthly pleasures,” while his mother, Helene Fallenstein Weber, preferred a more ascetic lifestyle. The conflicts this created in their marriage acutely influenced Max. Still, their house was full of prominent intellectuals and lively discourse, an environment in which Weber thrived. Growing up, he was bored with school and disdained his teachers, but devoured classic literature on his own. After graduating from high school, Weber studied law, history, philosophy and economics for three semesters at Heidelberg University before spending a year in the military. When he resumed his studies in 1884, he went to the University of Berlin and spent one semester at Göttingen. He passed the bar exam in 1886 and earned his Ph.D. in 1889, ultimately completing his habitation thesis, which allowed him to obtain a position in academia. It was around the outbreak of the first World War when he brought the pinnacles of his achievements as he worked intensely in two areas: the comparative sociology of world religions and his contribution to the “Grundriss derr Socialökonomik”(The Foundation of Socio-economics). During the war he was, at first, a fervent nationalist supporter as virtually all German intellectuals at the time were. Later on he grew disillusioned with the German war policies and protested against the government. When the defeat of Germany came in 1918, the people found in Weber a public intellectual leader and possibly a future statesman. Early Career Weber married a distant cousin, Marianne Schnitger, in 1893. After his father died in 1897, Weber suffered a mental breakdown. He was plagued by depression, anxiety and insomnia, which made it impossible for him to teach. He spent the next five years in and out of sanatoriums. When Weber was finally able to resume working in 1903, he became an editor at a prominent social science journal. In 1904, he was invited to deliver a lecture at the Congress of Arts and Sciences in St. Louis, Missouri and later became widely known for his famed essays, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. These essays, published in 1904 and 1905, discussed his idea that the rise of modern capitalism was attributable to Protestantism, particularly Calvinism. After a stint volunteering in the medical service during World War I, Weber published three more books on religion in a sociological context. The Religion of China (1916) The Religion of India (1916) Ancient Judaism (1917-1918) This works contrasted their respective religions and cultures with that of the Western world by weighing the importance of economic and religious factors, among others, on historical outcomes. He intended to publish additional volumes on Christianity and Islam, but he contracted the Spanish flu and died in Munich on June 14, 1920. His manuscript of Economy and Society was left unfinished; it was edited by his wife and published in 1922. II. Works and Principles Bureaucratization For Weber, a Bureaucracy is any system of administration conducted by trained professionals according to fixed rules already established. Max argued that the bureaucracy constitutes the most efficient and rational way in which human activity can be organized, and that systematic processes and organized hierarchies were necessary to maintain order while simultaneously maximizing efficiency and eliminate favoritism. But even Weber saw unfettered bureaucracy as a threat to individual freedom, in which, an increase in the bureaucratization of human life can trap individuals in a virtual “iron cage” of rule based rational control. Sociology Weber is often cited, with Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx, as among the three founding creators of sociology. “Sociology is the science whose object is to interpret the meaning of social action and thereby give a casual explanation of the way in which the action proceeds and the effects which it produces.” - Max Weber Weber observes how human behaviors relate to cause and effect in the social realm (e.g. local communities and nations). Action can either mean a basic action in which one has meaning or an advanced social action, which not only has meaning but is given the weight of direction and purpose directed to other people and causes action/reactions to occur. This refers to the replacement of traditions, values and emotions as motivators for behavior in society with rational calculated ones. Weber believed that a move towards rational-legal authority was inevitable. In charismatic authority, the death of a leader effectively ends the power of that authority but through a rationalized and bureaucratic base can this authority be passed on to the successor. The Protestant Ethic And Spirit Of Capitalism Composed between the years 1904 and 1905 before the First World War. Weber argues that Puritan ethics and ideas influenced the development of capitalism. He defines spirit of capitalism as the ideas and esprit that favor rational pursuit of economic stability and welfare. III. Max Weber And Our Times Bureaucracy And Bureaucratic Countries Bureaucratic governments are easily found in third world developing countries due to its effective way of dealing with various situations. India is a very good example of this and the effect of bureaucracy has been noted due to its rise in economic growth and development as well as the rise of the literacy rate amongst its people Situation in the Philippines Vulnerable to Nepotism Perpetuation of the spoils system Apathetic public reaction of beaurucratic misconduct Availability of external peaceful means of correcting bureaucratic weakness Lack of independence from politics Application Of Psychology The use of sociology can be easily felt and experienced in our own decision making. We now observe first the situation given to us before hand and plan our moves accordingly to get the best results. Political leaders are also sensitive to the actions they might take so as to maximize the efficiency of their project, taking into account about the pros and cons of such things and what might be the possible effects. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Although the reformation was a religious movement, it also had a strong impact on all other aspects of life: marriage and family, education. The humanities and sciences, political and social order, the economy and the arts. The protestant concept of God and man allows believers to use all their God-given faculties, including the power of reason, which means that they are allowed to use the environment in a responsible and sustainable way.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 10:24:07 +0000
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