Max Weber

Max Weber (1864–1920) was a German sociologist and political economist whose studies of rationalization, bureaucracy, authority, and religion shaped modern social science.

Social action: Action to which an individual attaches subjective meaning and which is oriented toward other people. Weber made meaningful action the starting point of sociological explanation.
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: Weber’s 1904–1905 study linking ascetic Protestant ethics to the formation of a distinctive capitalist ethos. This work applies Weber’s historical sociology to the relationship between religion and capitalism.
University of Heidelberg: A German university where Weber studied and later held a professorship. Heidelberg was a major setting for Weber’s academic work and intellectual circle.
Karl Marx: A German philosopher and political economist who explained social change through material production and class conflict. Weber treated economic interests as vital but rejected class and material production as sufficient explanations.
Weberian sociology: A sociological tradition centered on interpretive understanding, social action, authority, and rationalization. Later scholars developed Weber’s concepts into a broad approach to social explanation.
Verstehen: An interpretive method for understanding the meanings people attach to their actions. Weber used interpretive understanding to explain social action without reducing it to external causes.
The Protestant ethic: A set of ascetic Protestant beliefs that treated disciplined work and worldly conduct as religiously significant. Weber examined how these beliefs could encourage methodical economic conduct.
German Historical School: A tradition of German scholarship emphasizing historical and institutional study of economic life. Its historical approach framed debates Weber engaged in while developing his comparative sociology.
Émile Durkheim: A French sociologist who explained social order through social facts and collective institutions. Durkheim’s emphasis on social facts contrasts with Weber’s focus on meaningful individual action.
Charismatic authority: Authority grounded in followers’ devotion to a leader believed to possess exceptional qualities. Weber’s category remains influential in analyses of leadership and political allegiance.

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