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Max Weber: His Religious and Ethical Background and Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Paul Honigsheim
Paul Honigsheim
Affiliation:
Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon
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Extract

In the last few decades, and especially since the excellent translations by Parsons and Gerth appeared, considerable discussion of Max Weber has taken place. Since only a few of his publications have been made accessible, the result has been an incomplete and oftentimes incorrect concept of the man. He is sometimes regarded as emphasizing almost exclusively the importance of the spiritual factor with regard to changes in the socio-economic sphere. More frequently he is regarded as one who deals with religous phenomena only in a rationalistic way. Both concepts of the man are equally wrong. Thus, it is my purpose to outline his basic religious, philosophical, and ethical convictions as well as the possible interrelationship between such ideas and his investigations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , December 1950 , pp. 219 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1950

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References

1 The main sources for the following are Marianne Weber, Weber, Max (Tübingen, 1926)Google Scholar and Lebenserinnerungen (Bremen, 1948), 51–53Google Scholar; Weber, Max, Jugend-briefe (Tübingen, N.D.)Google Scholar and Gesammelte Politische Schriften (München, 1921)Google Scholar; Honigsheim, Paul, “Max Weber as Rural Sociologist,” Rural Sociology, XI (1946), 207–209Google Scholar incluaes a list of 21 other books and articles dealing with Weber.

2 As to the role which Mommsen and his concept of antiquity played in. Weber's life, see Honigaheim, Paul, “Max Weber as Historian of Agriculture,” Agricultural History, XXIII (1949), 191–199.Google Scholar

3 After the death of Weber almost all of his publications were collected by his widow, Marianne Weber, and published by J. C. B. Mohr at Tübingen. The volume which contains the works in the field of history of agriculture is: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte (Tübingen, 1924)Google Scholar. Not included in the posthumous edition is Die römischc Agrargeschichte in ihrer Bedeutung für das Staats- und Privatrecht (Stuttgart, 1891).Google Scholar

4 As to the Heidelbergian atmosphere of that time and the indivithials with whom Max Weber came in contact, see Wilhelm, Windelband, Kuno Fischer (Heidelberg, 1907)Google Scholar; idem, “Zum Geleit,” in Jellinek, Georg, Ausgewählte Reden und Schriften, I (Berlin, 1911), 5–11Google Scholar; Richert, Heinrich, Wilhelm Windelband (Tübingen, 1915)Google Scholar; Troeltsch, Ernst, Review of Georg Jellinek, Ausgewählte Reden und Schriften in Zeitschrift für das Privat- und öffentliche Recht der Gegenwart (Wien, 1912)Google Scholar; Honigsheim, Paul, “Veit Valentin,” in Die FriedensWarte, XLVII (Zürich, 1947).Google Scholar

5 Those volumes which contain the works in the field of epistemology, general sociology, and sociology of religion, which mostly were written in Heidelberg, are: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziology, 1–3, (Tübingen, 1920–1921)Google Scholar, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre (Tübingen, 1922)Google Scholar, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (Tübingen, 1922).Google Scholar

6 The most important political publications of this epoch are collected in Gesammelte Politische Schriften.

7 Wirtschaftsgeschichte (München, 1923)Google Scholar; translated into English by Knight, Frank H. under the title General Economic History (New York, 1927)Google Scholar.

8 The main source for the following is Max Weber, Jugendbriefe.

9 Ibid., 20f., 24, 45, 52, 55, 211f.

10 Ibid., 64, 106f., 212.

11 Ibid., 294, 334; Weber, Marianne, Max Weber, 408Google Scholar. As to the constant disdain of Max Weber for William II, see Weber, Max, Gesammelte Politische Schriften, 75, 187–198, 343, 456, 477–480.Google Scholar

12 Jugendbriefe, 59–60.

13 Ibid., 44, 205–208.

14 Ibid., 334.

15 Ibid., 60f., 196, 229.

16 Ibid., 22, 86, 106f., 213, 368.

17 Ibid., 204, 234, 311.

18 Ibid., 191f.

19 An explanation of the atmosphere out of which Neo-Kantianism originated may be found in Ellisson, O. A., “Biographisches Vorwort” in Friedrich Albert Lange, Geschichte des Materialismus, I (Leipzing, 1905), 12–14.Google Scholar

20 The following articles which are reprinted in Gesammelte Aufsätzc zur Wissenschaftslehre, contain Weber's basic epistemoloical theories: Stammier's, R. Überwindung der materialistisehen Geschichtsauffassung,” 291–359Google Scholar, “Die Objektivität Sozial wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnis,” 146–214, “Zur Auseinandersetzung mit Edward Meyer,” 215–265, “Der Sinn der Wertfreiheit der Soziologischen und ökonomischen Wissenschaften,” 451–502. The last three mentioned among these four articles have been translated under the title Max Weber on the Methodology of the Social Sciences, translated and edited by Edward H. Shils and Henry A. Finch (Glencoe, 1949)Google Scholar. See also Weber, Max, The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, translated by Henderson, A. M. and Parsons, Talcott (New York, 1947), 87–157.Google Scholar Consult also Henigsheim, Paul, “Max Weber als Soziologe,” Kölner Vierteljahrshefte für Soziologie, I (1920).Google Scholar

21 For further detaila about these movements, see Honigsheim, Paul, “Bomantische und religiös-mystisch verankerte Wirtschaftsgesinnungen,” Die Wirtschafswissenschaft nach dern Kriege, ed., Bonn, M. J. und Palyi, M., I (München, 1925), 298–312Google Scholar, and “The Roots of the Nazi Concept of the Ideal German Peasant,“ Rural Sociology, XII (1947), 16–19.Google Scholar

22 See the collected works of George, entitled Gesamtausgabe der Werke (Berlin, 1927–1934)Google Scholar. Especially, consult Vol. III, Bücher der Sagen und Sänge (1930); Vol. V, Der Teppich des Lebens; Vol VI-VIl, Der Biebente Ring (1931); Vol VIII, Der Stern des Bundes (1929). See also the English translation of a selection of his writings entitled Poems rendered inio English (New York 1943)Google Scholar. The main publications of the adherents of George may be found in the review, Blätter für die Kunst (Berlin, 1892–1919.)Google Scholar Consult also Gundolf, F., George (Berlin, 1920).Google Scholar

23 The best charcterization of the German youth movement and survey on its most important groups may be found in Becker, Howard, German Youth: Bond or Free (New York, 1946).Google ScholarPubMed

24 For further detauksm see Honigsheim, Paul, “Rural Collectivities,” in Loomis, C. P. and Beegle, J. A., Rural Social Systems (New York, 1950), 839–846Google Scholar, and Becker, Georg, Die Siedlung der deutschen Jugendbewegung (Hilden 1929), 11–41, 60–80.Google Scholar

25 The ideas of Foerster and his adherents were mainly propagated in the review Die Menschheit (wiesbaden).

26 Weber, Max, “Politics as a Vocation,” form Max Weber, Essays in Sociology translated by Gerth, H. H., and Mills, C. Wright (New York, 1946), 122. 124.Google Scholar

27 The basic religious and ethical ideas of Max Weber may be found in: “Politics as a Vocation,” 119–127; “Science as a Vocation,” Ibid., 135, 146, 149–156; Die Objecktivität Sozialwissenchaftlicher Erkenntnis,” 153; and “Zwischen zwei Gesetzen” Gesammelte Politische Schriften, 60–63.

28 “Science as a Vocation,” 155f.

29 Ibid., 153f.

30 Ibid., 137.

31 Ibid., 145f., 150.

32 Ibid., 143.

33 This viewpoint of Kant appears most clearly in his book Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone, translated by Theodore M. Greene and Hoyt H. Hudson (Chicago, 1934), 15–49.Google Scholar

34 As to the interrelationship between Pietism and Kant, see, for example, Lavater, Johann Casper, Ausgewahlte Schriften, ed. von Orelli, Johann Kasper (Zürich, 1841–1844), II, 175, VIII, 309Google Scholar, and Jung-Stilling, Johann Heinrich, Sämmtliche Werke, VIII (Stuttgart. 1841), 453.Google Scholar

35 As to the interest of pietists in natural sciences, see for example, Jung-Stilling, , Werke, I, 448ff.Google Scholar, II, 31, IX, 866; Christian, Johann, Selbstbiographie, ed., Wilhelm, Klose (Berlin, 1849), 103, 201, 314f.Google Scholar, and von Oetinger, Friedrich Christoph, Selbstbiographie, ed., Julius, Hamberger (Stuttgart, 1845), 85.Google Scholar

36 Rickert, Heinrich, “Max Weber und seine Stellung zur Wissensehaft,” Logos, XV (Tübingen, 1926), 231.Google Scholar

37 Arthur Schopenhauer's attitude toward Kant's ethic can be found in his main work The World as Will and Idea, translated by R. B. Haldane and John Kemp, 8th ed. (London, N. D., 133–152.Google Scholar

38 Dostoevski's, Attitude toward other Eastern Peoples can be found in Politische Schriften (München, 1928), 174–184, 355–397, 437–454.Google Scholar

39 Dostoevski, F., The House of the Dead, The Novels of Fyodor Dostoevski, V (New York, 1923), 26, 62–63, 143, 264–263.Google Scholar