Max Weber: biography of this German sociologist and philosopher

Max Weber was a German philosopher, economist, historian, political scientist, jurist and sociologist he is widely considered one of the founders of empirical sociology.

He is considered one of the great intellectual figures of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and, among his greatest achievements, are having discovered what were the cultural conditions that allowed the development of the capitalism.

Weber's thinking remains very important to this day, although it is still controversial. Next we will see his life, thought and repercussion of him in the German politics of the last century through a short biography of Max Weber in which we will cover all these topics.

• Related article: "Karl Marx: biography of this philosopher and sociologist"

Short biography of Max Weber

Max Weber's career is characterized by his analysis of the roots of capitalism, a system that is already well palpable. in his time, in addition to German politics and how the social sciences should carry out his method investigative.

The life of this philosopher is that of a bourgeois, like that of many great German thinkers of his time that they could afford to philosophize amid the comforts of his surroundings. Let's see how his life unfolded.

Early years

Maximilian Karl Emil Weber, more popularly known as Max Weber, was born in Erfurt, Germany, on April 21, 1864 in the bosom of a wealthy bourgeois family. From a very young age he was interested in politics, since he was the son of a prominent jurist and politician of the National Liberal Party in Bismarck's time and member of Parliament German.

Max Weber witnessed him having the opportunity in his childhood to meet great intellectual figures of Germany in the second half of the 19th century, invited by his father. Thanks to this he was able to acquire extensive knowledge about how politics worked in the country at a time when Germany was anything but stable.

University education

Max weber he studied law at the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Göttingen. Despite having enrolled in that career to become a lawyer, as a young man he was very interested in economics, philosophy and, of course, politics, self-taught about these disciplines.

His interest in contemporary social policy grew while he was working on his thesis.. As a result of this interest he joined the Professional Association of German Economists in the year 1888, an organization that was among the first to use large-scale statistical studies in analysis economic.

In 1889 Weber would get a doctorate at the University of Berlin by presenting a thesis in which he spoke on the development of the principle of solidarity in family and commercial businesses in cities Italian.

In 1890 he wrote a work in which he addressed the "Polish question". At that time the eastern part of Germany was experiencing very important demographic changes, since the Local field workers went to the cities while free jobs were held by foreigners, mostly Poles. This work is considered one of the great works of empirical research of the time.

Career path: teaching and traveling in Europe

In 1893 he married his distant cousin Marianne Schnitger who years later would become a renowned feminist and writer.. Marianne was an important figure not only for her literary contributions and in defense of the rights of the woman, but also for having collected and published works by Max Weber not very well known, after his death of him.

Between the years 1890 and 1897 Weber's career was going well, becoming a very influential figure in Germany, until he suffered a serious setback. After having obtained the chair of political economy at the universities of Freiburg and Heidelberg, his father passed away. Months before the two had had a strong argument and had not yet made peace, with which Max Weber suffered a deep depression.

He would manage to recover, undertaking numerous trips through Europe together with his wife Marianne, although without being able to resume intellectual and teaching activity until 1902.

Once more animated, Weber wrote some essays on how the research method should be in the social-historical sciences, which is why he would be considered one of the founders of sociology.

Last years: World War I and the Weimar Republic

At the beginning of the First World War (1914-1918) Max Weber he accepted the arguments to justify Germany's involvement in the conflict. He even served as director of the Heidelberg military hospitals. However, as the conflict unfolded, Weber ended up opting for a more peaceful position.

After the war he returned to teach with a chair of economics, going first to Vienna and then to Munich. Being in this last city he would direct the first university institute of sociology in Germany. It was in those years that he would play a very important role in the history of his country, contributing to the drafting of the new Constitution of Germany, from which the Weimar Republic would be born.

Max Weber died of pneumonia in Munich on June 14, 1920. At that time, he was writing his work Economy and Society which was left unfinished and would be published several years later posthumously.

His thought

Max Weber is one of the great thinkers of recent times. He is considered one of the founders of modern sociology along with Karl Marx, Auguste Comte and Émile Durkheim although, ironically, he did not consider himself a sociologist. He saw himself as a historian and believed that sociology and history were two disciplines with converging knowledge. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that his thinking had a significant impact on our modern conceptualization of sociology.

Characteristics of the social sciences

Weber considered that the social sciences possess characteristics that make them different from the natural sciences, so there is no point in trying to apply the same research method in social studies as in the purer sciences. The social method should not imitate the method of the physical or natural sciences, since in social affairs individuals with conscience, will and intentions intervene.

The first thing he highlights is that they have a different objective, because the social branches do not deal with phenomena governed by a universal law, such as physics that is governed by Newton's law of gravity or Coulomb's law of electrostatics. The social sciences study how social movements develop, changes in social vision or migrations, processes endowed with an unrepeatable singularity.

Second, Weber points out that the fields of study of the social sciences are defined by the will of those who investigate them. A social research is very difficult to free from the chains of the subjectivity of those who are carrying it out, since they cannot be detached from the principles, values ​​and interests of those who are carrying out the investigation.

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

One of the fundamental works of Max Weber is "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism", published as a series of essays between 1904 and 1905, although it would later be compiled in book format. It is thanks to these essays that Weber is considered a kind of "Marx of the bourgeoisie", since both he and Karl Marx shared the idea that capitalism was the dominant aspect of the civilization of their time.

Still, between Weber and Marx there are many differences. Unlike Karl Marx, who considered that capitalism had a lot to do with economic structures and the class struggle, for Weber he considered that it was the cultural nature that had allowed the rise of this economic system, together with the prevailing religious and ethical mentality of many nations Protestants.

In his view, capitalism developed in places where achieving wealth was considered a moral duty.. This ethical conception is typical of Calvinist Protestantism, it began to be influential in Europe from the 16th century, when it was he staged the Protestant Reformation, causing several northern European countries to cease being Catholic and accept new versions of the Christianity.

For Weber it was the Calvinist economic ethic that was behind a strong economic and civil development seen in societies where reform had triumphed, such as the Netherlands and England. This was the basis of the modern idea of ​​capitalism, and the one that had allowed the cultural conditions to exist for this economic system to flourish.

This ethical stance on economics was incompatible with the traditional mindset of Catholic Christianity during the Middle Ages. Catholics followed the dogma that each individual should earn only what is necessary to survive, since trying to achieve more wealth than necessary was seen as a sin.

Weber and German politics

Politically, Weber's ideology could be seen as liberal, democratic, and reformist. In the middle of the First World War he was critical of the expansionist aims of his country and, after the humiliating defeat, the philosopher acquired political influence as a member of the expert committee representing Germany at the Paris Peace Conference (1918). He collaborated with Hugo Preuss in the drafting of the Constitution of the Weimar Republic in 1919 and was a supporter of parliamentarism.

Long ago he had spoken about his parliamentary and democratic interests. In 1890 Max Weber wrote a series of articles entitled "Parliament and Government in a Reconstructed Germany." These articles called for democratic reforms in the Constitution of the German Empire, which dated from 1871. Weber considered the problems in German politics to be due to a serious leadership problem.

After the Weber years, in 1919 he founded the German Democratic Party, with the clear intention of making Germany a country that is closer to his concept of democracy. He wanted democracy to be a tool for electing strong and charismatic leaders, where demagoguery should impose his desire on the masses. This vision, although well-intentioned, earned him numerous criticisms.

The European left is very critical of the figure of Max Weber based on what he declared about charismatic leaders. For many, Weber is, even if he did not do it voluntarily, who paved the intellectual ground for Adolf Hitler, a strong and charismatic leader, to take over. power, he abused his charisma to impose himself as a dictator and committed the terrible war crimes that were carried out during World War II (1939-1945).

On the other hand, as a critique coming especially from Marxists we have Weber's staunch anti-communism and his insistent call for an aggressive policy of German imperialism.

In addition, one of his students, Carl Schmitt, was the conceptualizer of the idea of ​​the “Total State”, something that makes the left even more disillusioned with Weber since, basically, implies that the state takes absolute power in emergency situations. This idea would, in fact, be the one that would make Hitler see himself free to apply Article 48 of the Weimar Republic, taking full powers.

In Weber's defense, it can be said that, had he managed to live a little longer, he would hardly have been a supporter of Nazi policies. Weber was liberal and pro-democrat, in addition to being very concerned about anti-Semitism prevailing in his time, prior to Nazism. He would never have agreed with the state corporatism and one-party totalitarianism applied during the Third Reich, which his student Carl Schmitt did.

Bibliographic references:

• Ruiza, M., Fernández, T. and Tamaro, E. (2004). Biography of Max Weber. In Biographies and Lives. The Biographical Encyclopedia Online. Barcelona, ​​Spain). Recovered from https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/w/weber_max.htm on July 8, 2020.
• Weber, M. (1995) Max Weber. A biography. Alfons el Magnànim.
• Freund, J. (1973) Sociology of Max Weber, Peninsula.
• Cobo Bedía, R. (1996). Marianne Weber: Max Weber. A biography. Sociological. Journal of Social Thought, 1996, 1: 181-185. ISSN 1137-1234.