Weber Flashcards
Example where power is independent from class
Brahmins in India
His theory of history is…
multicausal
What is Verstehen?
A form of social understanding, have to understand the meaning people give to their actions: how they make sense of their reality
Elective affinity between…
material circumstances and ideal beliefs
Examples to illustrate elective affinity
Peasant have magic because their survival relies on things they don’t control: rain
City dwellers needs religions of the book because they need order
What are ideal types
Analytical tools
Useful for building theories
Are used to be tested against the reality
Idea of singular universe
Things happen in time because of a particular context
Once it occurs other copy
Social action
idea of verstehen, value-judgement
3 major stages of history for Weber
Pre-agrarian (hunters and gatherers)
Agrarian (different types of religions)
Industrial (state socialism and liberal capitalism)
How does weber’s theory of social development diverge from Marx’s? (+ 2 concepts)
Multicausal and there can be multiple forms of politics with only one mode of production
Fortuitous opening, single universe
Define “this worldly asceticism”
the concentration of human behaviour within the context of the everyday world upon activities leading to salvation
Where does the calling come in?
You work to reduce salvation anxiety
Work to show everyone around you that you are chosen
Protestantism did not cause capitalism BUT
was influential in its development
What other things alongside Protestantism cause capitalism (4)
FORTUITOUS OPENING BECAUSE autonomous towns legal system feudalist system no centralized government
Important quote about puritans
“we are sensuous without spirit”
- saying that the puritans, who made germany were proper existentialists, they were great
we don’t make any efforts - we live in an iron cage
Important quote about idealism and materialism
“it’s not my intention to replace one sided materialism with one sided idealism”
Religion isn’t the only cause
Many things drive history
Weber’s ideas on socialism
Even more organized, rational and bureaucratic than capitalism
State ownership is more repressive
Consequences of the advancement of science (3+quote)
Demagification, demystification
“the civilized man has no meaning”
Creation of a cold and dark world - no promise of salvation
Knowledge undermines moral warmth
Science of morality?
Not possible
Because people want different worlds
Science can’t tell people how to live their lives or what to value
why is scientific research not neutral
It is value relevant
You look for (objective) data that will support your position
Weber’s definition of the state
an entity which has monopoly over the use of legitimate coercive power in a given territory
Definition of politics
pursuit of power over the state
3 types of authority (justifying the legitimacy of political domination of the state)
Traditional authority
Charismatic authority
Legal-rational authority
Traditional authority
based on habit
patriarchal, patrimonial and traditional
Charismatic authority
Based on belief of supernatural or intrinsic gift of the individual
Legal-rational authority
Based on rational competence and obedience
Politicians balance… (+explanation in a sentence)
This of moral conviction and ethic of responsibility
Use emotions to rally people but cold, hard reason to rule
What does the world need?
Charismatic leader with a vision to encourage and lead us
His opinion on consensus
BAD
struggle is good
Domination legitimacy (doesn’t mean…)
Doesn’t mean it’s democratic and accepted
BUT has ideological ground which hides naked power (creation of order with ideological backing)
3 types of legitimate domination (or societies)
Traditional societies
Charismatic societies
Modern societies
Traditional societies
do things because thats the way they were done in the past
Charismatic societies
emotional attachement to leader
Modern societies
Bureaucratic, rational legal
Has impersonal rules, meritocracy
4 types of action
Traditional
Affective and emotional
Value rational
Instrumental rational
Instrumental rational action
rationality is more powerful
you question your values
“They are pathetic experts in political triviality: they lack the deep instinct for power that a class which is called upon to take over the political leadership in society ought to possess”
- weber is saying that the working class will not be successful in revolution bc they’re not POLITICALLY EDUCATED don’t know what to do once they have power - they will fail
- lack political education of power
- proletariat need to be educated in order to be successful -> referring to france
“What is lacking is precisely the devise element in Western ecnomic life, the modification of this instinctive avarice, its transformation into a rational pursuit of gain and its integration into a system of ration, inner-wordly ethics of action - that transformation which was achieved in the West by the ‘inner-wordy asceticism’ of protestantism, following on the world of a few predecessors to whom it had inner affinities.”
- Keyword: rational pursuit of gain, integration into a system…, innerwordly ascetism
- weber says that elective affinity
- people who want to do the work of god now
- they’re not indulging in extremes bc they want to be saved in their afterlives
- east lacks ascetic this-worldy ideology
- Weber contradicts smith, K not result of greed
- W doesn’t view K as a result of greed
“But in Holland, too, which was only really dominated by strict calvinism for seven years, the greater simplicity of life which prevailed in the religiously more earnest circles led, when combined with enormous wealth, to an immoderate passion for capital accumulation”
- why holland failed transition into capitalism
- ideology devleopped determined by material conditions
- have to say that they lacked the calling for hard worked that puritans obsessede
- they lacked rationality
- often involved indulgence
- Lack of work ethic and indulgence (IMPORTANT)
- led simple lives, not disciplined
“All that can be said is that, where a congregational religion, especially one of an ethically rational character, did develop, it was quite natural that it fund it easiest t gain adherents precisely among the urban petty bourgeoisie, and then in turn to influence the way of life of this class in certain circumstances - as has in fact taken place”
- keywords: ethically rational character, urban petty bourgeoisie, and influenced the way of life of this class
- W is talking about the elective affinity between belief and particular circumstances
- ideology is preferable to certain people if it reflects their way of life (elective affinity) 1 point
- explain that protestantism developed among the petty bourgeoisie 1 point
“Clearly, the life of the petty bourgeois, especially the urban artisan and small businessman, is much further removed from any kind of connexion with nature than is that of the peasant, so that dependence on the use of magic to influence the irrational forces of nature cannot play the same part in his life as in the peasant’s. On the contrary, the economic conditions of his life are essentially more rational, which means, in this context, that they are much more amenable to calculation and to the influence of means rationally chosen to achieve a given end.” (Weber Selections P175)
Elective affinity
“The thought that man has obligations towards the possessions entrusted to him, to which he subordinates himself either as obedient steward or actually as a ‘machine for acquisition’, lays its chilly hand on life. The greater the possessions become, the sterner becomes – provided the ascetic attitude to life can stand the test – the sense of responsibility for them, the feeling that one must preserve them undiminished for God’s glory and increase them by unceasing labour.” (Weber Selections P159)
Protestant ethic
Capitalism
Predestination
“They are pathetic experts in political triviality: they lack the deep instincts for power of a class which has been called to political leadership…If we are the political opponents of the working class, it is because there is no greater disaster that can befall a great nation than leadership by a politically uneducated philistine class…” (p 266)
Weber’s view on working class
Against marx
Elitist
“But the character of these soteriologies, which was still ultimately gnostic and mystical, offered no basis for the development of a methodological rational, inner-worldly mode of life which would be adequate to them. As a result, to the extent that their religion was sublimated under the influence of the salvation doctrines, however, the decisive influence of the various forms of savior religion” (p 197)
Elective affinity
Keywords (24)
Multi causal theorist Class, status, party Verstehen Elective affinity Ideal type Singular universe Social action This worldly asceticism Original sin Calling Predestination Iron cage: disenchantment, demagification Value judgement Science of morality Traditional Charismatic Legal rational Ethic of moral conviction Ethic of responsibility Value-rationality Instrumental rationality Affective and emotional Meritocracy
