Understanding Weber

Notes 283
71 We have seen this with Dilthey, but it is a position firmly asserted by Spinoza,
whose influence over German thought at the time was considerable.
72 EW, pp. 359–404.
73 Weber, M., The Methodology of the Social Sciences, Shils, E.A., and Finch, H.A.
(eds/transl.), New York: Free Press, 1949.
74 Hollis, M., ‘Two Models’, in Models of Man, Philosophical Thoughts on Social
Action, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
75 Durkheim said this in Suicide, and Weber in ‘The Logic of the Cultural Sciences’,
The Methodology of the Social Sciences, pp. 126–8.
76 In a Weberian world of infinite complexity, there would be little sense in pursuing
a long counterfactual train of thought, as if a historical event, such as the
Russian Revolution, had not happened. Weber is concerned with actual events
and their attribution back to causes.
77 See Turner, S.P., and Factor, R.A., Max Weber. Lawyer as Social Thinker, London:
Routledge, 1994. Wagner, G. and Zipprian, H. ‘The Problem of Reference
in Max Weber’s Theory of Causal Explanation’, Human Studies, 9, 1986, pp.
21–42.
78 Strauss, A., and Corbin, J., Basics of Qualitative Research. Grounded Theory
Procedures and Techniques, Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1990. On sensitizing concepts,
see Atkinson, P., and Hammersley, M., Ethnography. Principles in Practice,
London: Routledge, 1995.
5 The reluctant sociologist
1 Lehmann, H. ‘Weber’s Use of Scholarly Praise and Scholarly Criticism in The
Protestant Ethic and the ‘Spirit’ of Capitalism’, Max Weber Studies, 5.2, 2005,
pp. 233–4.
2 Quoted in The Protestant Ethic Debate, Max Weber’s Replies to his Critics,
1907–1910, Chalcraft, D.J., and Harrington, A. (eds), Harrington, A., and
Shields, M. (transl.), Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2001, p. 27.
3 The Protestant Ethic and the ‘Spirit’ of Capitalism and Other Writings, Baehr, P.,
and Wells, G. (eds/transl.), London: Penguin, 2002, p. 26.
4 The Protestant Ethic and the ‘Spirit’ of Capitalism and Other Writings, pp.
264–5.
5 Troeltsch, E., Protestantism and Progress. A Historical Study of the Relation of
Protestantism to the Modern World, Montgomery, W. (transl.), London: William
& Norgate, 1912.
6 Kippenberg, H., ‘Einleitung’ to Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Religiöse Gemeinschaften,
MWG I/22-2, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001, pp. 7–8.
7 PE Debate, p. 118.
8 PE Debate, p. 131.
9 Reference to Georg Siebeck.
10 Peter Ghosh argues that capitalism ‘was the central element in Weber’s conception
of modernity’ in the period from 1890 to around 1907–8. Thereafter
‘capitalism was replaced as a central focus by rationality and rationalization. As
a result Weber’s central conceptual reading of modernity would now be routed
through bureaucracy and not capitalism, though he always supposed that the
two were closely linked.’ Ghosh, P., ‘Not the Protestant Ethic? Max Weber at St
Louis’, History of European Ideas, 31, 2005, p. 382.
11 Briefe, MWG II/5, 26 December 1907, p. 426.
12 Quoted in ‘Introduction’ by Roth, G., in Weber, M., Economy and Society, New
York: Bedminster Press, 1968, p. lxiv.
13 M.I. Finley, letter to F. Hinchelheim, 17 November 1947, quoted in Nafissi, M.,
Ancient Athens and Modern Ideology. Value, Theory and Evidence in Historical