Economy and Society Max Weber

max weber economy and society book pdf

Overview

“This work is the sum of Max Weber’s scholarly vision of society. It has become a constitutive part of the sociological imagination as it is understood today. Economy and Society was the first strictly empirical comparaison of social structure and normative order in world-historical depth.”

Publisher University of California Press
Year 1978
Pages 1469
Filesize 48.5 MB
Format PDF

Summary

This is the first complete English edition of Economy and Society. All hitherto unavailable chapters and sections have been translated and the annotation has been considerably expanded. The Appendix contains a brief terminological supplement and one of Weber’s major political essays. All previously translated parts used here have been thoroughly revised and many passages have been rewritten.

The original translators of these chapters are absolved from all responsibility for the present version of their work. We would like to thank Ephraim Fischoff for going over our revision of his translation of the “Sociology of Religion” (Part Two, ch. VI) and for making further suggestions and offering other help. However, he too should not be held responsible For the final version. (from Preface by Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich, 1968)

Contents

Volume I

  • Part One. Conceptual Exposition
    1. I. Basic Sociological Terms
    2. II. Sociological Categories of Economic Action
    3. Ill. The Types of Legitimate Domination
    4. IV. Status Groups and Classes
  • Part Two: The Economy and the Arena of Normative and De Facto Powers
    1. The Economy and Social Norms
    2. The Economic Relationships of Organized Groups
    3. Household, Neighborhood and Kin Group
    4. Household, Enterprise and Oikos
    5. Ethnic Groups
    6. Religious Groups (The Sociology of Religion)
    7. The Market: Its Impersonality and Ethic (Fragment)

    Volume 2

    1. Economy and Law (The Sociology of Law)
    2. Political Communities
    3. Domination and Legitimacy
    4. Bureaucracy
    5. Patriarchalism and Patrimonialism
    6. Feudalism, Standestaat and Patrimonialism
    7. Charisma and Its Transformation
    8. Political and Hierocratic Domination
    9. The City (Non-Legitimate Domination)
  • Appendices
    1. Types of Social Action and Groups
    2. Parliament and Government in a Reconstructed Germany

Extract

"Sociology (in the sense in which this highly ambiguous word is used here) is a science concerning itself with the interpretive understanding of social action and thereby with a causal explanation of its course and consequences. We shall speak of 'action' insofar as the acting individual attaches a subjective meaning to his behavior-be it overt or covert, omission or acquiescence. Action is 'social' insofar as its subjective meaning takes account of the behavior of others and is thereby oriented in its course."

  1. "Meaning" may be of two kinds. The term may refer first to the actual existing meaning in the given concrete case of a particular actor, or to the average or approximate meaning attributable to a given plurality of actors; or secondly to the theoretically conceived pure type of subjective meaning attributed to the hypothetical actor or actors in a given type of action. In no case does it refer to an objectively "correct" meaning or one which is "true" in some metaphysical sense. It is this which distinguishes the empirical sciences of action, such as sociology and history, from the dogmatic disciplines in that area, such as jurisprudence, logic, ethics, and esthetics, which seek to ascertain the "true" and "valid" meanings associated with the objects of their investigation.
  2. The line between meaningful action and merely reactive behavior to which no subjective meaning is attached, cannot be sharply drawn empirically. A very considerable part of all sociologically relevant behavior, especially purely traditional behavior, is marginal between the two. In the case of some psychophysical processes, meaningful, i.e., subjectively understandable, action is not to be found at all; in others it is discernible only by the psychologist. Many mystical experiences which cannot be adequately communicated in words are, for a person who is not susceptible to such experiences, not fully understandable. At the same time the ability to perform a similar action is not a necessary prerequisite to understanding; "one need not have been Caesar in order to understand Caesar." "Recapturing an experience" is important for accurate understanding, hut not an absolute precondition for its interpretation. Understandable and non-understandable components of a process are often intermingled and hound up together.

    Author

    Max Weber (1864–1920) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist, widely regarded as one of the founding figures of modern sociology. His work spans a wide array of topics, including social theory, the development of capitalism, the role of religion in society, and the study of bureaucracy.

    Download Book

    Title Economy and Society Max Weber
    Subtitle An Outline of Interpretative Sociology
    Author
    Publisher University of California Press
    Date 1978
    Pages 1469
    Country United States of America
    ISBN 0520035003
    Format PDF
    URL Download Max Weber Economy and Society Max Weber pdf