Max Weber's Impact On The World

Before discussing Marx and Weber’s theories we must look at their upbringing and who has influenced their works. Karl Marx was born in West Germany in a small business city called Trier, in 1818 (Karl Marx, Intro. to Part III, Pg.135). Karl Marx was the son of a rich family and

and subsequent reinvestment of capital, is an end that both Weber and Marx reach in their analyses of society and agree on in definition. However, while Marx tells us that phantoms of the brain i.e. morality, religion, ideology, cannot develop independently of material production or influence it, Weber argues that ideas and religion can indeed determine life and the processes of life, namely our material production. The key difference between the two is their scope of factors that can cause historical development. Marx only allows for one factor, productive forces and the economic conditions resulting from them; Weber, on the other hand, acknowledges that while ideology and religion can support the economic relations as a driving factor, they can also develop independently and become a factor, a force on its own that can alter production, economic conditions, and thus history. By accounting for the multiple ways in which a society can be altered, Weber provides a more complete and applicable understanding of historical development and the powerful concept that an idea from an individual or group of individuals can have a legitimate and significant effect on the direction of society.

Like Marx, however, Weber did not develop a systematic theory of the state. Andreas Anter and Stefan Breuer seek to do so by departing from Weber's insights. Anter's Max Webers Theorie des Modernen Stoates provides a systematic account of what Weber had to say concerning the modern state and of related

Max Weber introduced his three types of authority in an essay which was first published in 1922 in German, and was later published in 1958 in English. Weber believes that many systems can consider themselves as holding legitimate authority, yet

Two names that are repeatedly mentioned in sociological theory are Karl Marx and Max Weber. In some ways these two intellectuals were similar in the way they looked at society. There are also some striking differences. In order to compare and contrast these two individuals it is necessary to look at each of their ideas. Then a comparison of their views can be illustrated followed by examples of how their perspectives differ from each other.

In class, we talked about discrimination in society through economic inequality with Marx, and then with Durkheim. We discussed the positive viewing of individualism in society through inequality. Max Weber is comparable to Karl Marx because they both focus on inequality and capitalism. However, unlike Marx, Weber views the uneconomic actions in society. He has an interpretive view, and as an interpretive sociologist, this means he focuses on the concerns of the society itself and not the people

Max Weber (1864-1920), a well known German sociologist, saw society was organised into status groups, with a common lifestyle. There are three factors, that determine an individuals chances in life which are, economic, status and power. When all these factors are combined, these elements create better circumstances, for an individual. It can therefore be noted, that an individuals social class, can have a large influence, on many parts of their life. A significant issue for sociologist and society, is

Weber also works off of Marx’s theories, far more than Durkheim appeared to. In the major instance, he takes Marx’s super-sub structure notion, flips it upside down, and molds it to his own theories. Marx hypothesized the economy to be the base of all society; Weber, on the other hand, conceived religion as being the base to shape the rest of society and theorized as such in The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism, where business and religion are viewed as strongly correlated.

“The prestige of Max Weber among European social scientists would be difficult to over-estimate. He is widely considered the greatest of German sociologists and ... has become a leading influence in European and American thought.” (Mills, 1946)

Marx and Weber added to human science from multiple points of view. A critical commitment is their distinctive ways to deal with social class and imbalance.

Max Weber see traditionalism as the "most important opponent...of capitalism". When Weber states "traditionalism" he refers to the "traditional needs" that people are accustom to. He means that people normally just want to live their regular and traditional life--a lifestyle that has become the norm to them. Additionally, Weber states that people only want to earn the enough money to sustain their current lifestyle. An example stated in the reading by Weber is that of the increasing piece rates and working men. In the example, when there is an increase in the piece rate the workmen do not work more to earn a higher wage, but rather they just work the necessary amount to earn the same as before. Although the workmen have the potential to earn

The second father of the big debate would be Max Weber. Weber took a middle standpoint on the Capitalistic spectrum. Weber was influenced by a religious ideology; one of a protestant work ethic viewpoint; work hard in this life and be rewarded in Heaven. Weber greatly believed that by impressing God, an individual will succeed in life. Although Weber was strongly influenced by the works of Karl Marx he was more interested in the existential reasoning as to why technology came to be, his conclusion was that work got complicated and that individuals needed a way to be

Max Weber a German sociologist born in 1864. He was primarily concerned with the modern western society. He saw that the behaviour of individuals was increasingly

Max Weber was one of the world's greatest sociologists and wrote a lot about the capitalist world he lived in. He had a different conception of capitalist society than most of his contemporaries. He looked at capitalism from all the different aspects that the philosophy was made of. Some of these aspects are state power, authority, class inequality, imperialism, and bureaucracy. To understand how Weber thought one must look at each area separately then put them all together in a global package.

Weber was concerned to demonstrate, contrary to Marx's thought, that culture was not reducible to the economic aspect of a society. Weber insisted that culture was to be considered as an autonomous value-sphere of any society. We might define such a value-sphere as; "..a distinct realm of activity which has its own inherent dignity and in which certain values, norms, obligations are inherent." (Brubaker:1983) Not only is this value-sphere of culture autonomous but, for Weber, it has the ability to construct forms of economic activity! For Weber, culture is seen as an agent in the production and maintenance of social relations. For