Weber Flashcards
Overview
Unlike Functionalists, Marxists and Feminists Weber and Weberians argue that religious ideas can change society:
Max Weber (1864-1920), known for his Social Action Theory, said that human behaviour is directed by meanings and motives. How a person behaves is dependent on their world view, their image of the world. Religion is often an important component of this world view as it provides people with meaning, purpose and motivation in life.
Religion is a force of social change
Weber challenged the Marxist theory of economic determinism and said that society was not influenced just by economic considerations. For example, in one of his best-known works, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905), he tried to prove that ethical and religious ideas were strong influences on the development of capitalism.
He argued that Britain became the first capitalist nation partly because of its adherence to Protestantism and in particular the strict Calvinist branch of this faith. Calvinists believed that they had to show themselves to be pious and hard working to gain entry to heaven.
