Weber`s discussion of the relationship between culture and economics was a revolutionary theory at the time. He established an important theoretical tradition in sociology to take seriously the cultural realm of values and ideology as a social force that interacts with and influences other aspects of society such as politics and economics. Weber`s main contribution as such, however, lies neither in epistemology nor in ethics. Although they profoundly affected his thoughts to an extent still underestimated, his main concern was elsewhere. He was, after all, one of the founding fathers of the modern social sciences. Aside from the recognition that Weber is not simply a quintessential sociologist, as Talcott Parsons` quasi-Durkheimian interpretation portrayed him, the identification of a master idea in his disparate work has been discussed since his own days and is far from clear. Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, his alleged magnum opus, was a posthumous publication based on the direction of his widow and whose thematic architecture can hardly be reconstructed without a doubt, even after its last new edition under the title Max Weber Complete Edition [MWG]. The GARS forms a more coherent whole, because its editorial construction was the work of Weber himself; And yet, his relationship with his other sociologies such as law, the city, music, domination and economics remains controversial. As a result, its main theme has also been variously assumed to be the history of the development of Western rationalism (Wolfgang Schluchter), the universal history of rationalist culture (Friedrich Tenbruck) or simply of humanity as it arises and degenerates in modern rational society (Wilhelm Hennis). The first presents Weber as a historical-comparative sociologist; the second, a modern idealistic cultural historian reminiscent of Jacob Burckhardt; and the third, a political philosopher on an equal footing with Machiavelli, Hobbes and Rousseau.
Important as they are for Weber`s internal research, these philological debates should not hinder our attempt to grasp the core of his ideas. It is enough for us to realize that, although with varying emphasis, these different interpretations all converge towards the thematic centrality of rationality, rationalism and rationalization to understand Weber. Basically, rationalization, which takes place in all areas of human life, religion and the right to music and architecture, means a historical impulse towards a world in which one can “in principle control everything in a calculating way” [Weber 1919/1946, 139]. For example, modern capitalism is a rational economy because it depends on a calculable production process. This search for exact predictability underpins institutional innovations such as monetary accounting (especially double-entry accounting), the centralization of production control, the separation of workers from the means of production, the provision of formally free labor, disciplined control in factories, and other features that qualitatively distinguish modern capitalism from all other forms of organization of life. economical. Improving the predictability of the production process is also underpinned by non-economic areas such as law and administration. Legal formalism and bureaucratic management reinforce the elements of predictability in the socio-political environment that weigh on industrial capitalism through the introduction of formal equality of citizenship, rules-based legislation of legal norms, an autonomous judiciary and a depoliticized professional bureaucracy. Moreover, all this predictability and predictability in the political, social and economic spheres was not possible without a change of values in ethics, religion, psychology and culture. In other words, institutional rationalization was based on the rise of a particularly rational, or “professional,” personality type as described in Protestant ethics.
The result of this complex interplay of ideas and interests has been modern rational Western civilization, with its enormous material and cultural capacity for relentless world domination. The development of communication and transport technologies has allowed for more efficient administration (and has been demanded by the population), and the democratization and rationalization of culture has led to demands that the new system treat everyone equally. [107] Weber saw religion as one of the central forces of society. [58] Its aim was to find the reasons for the different paths of development of Western and Eastern cultures, but without judging or evaluating them, like some of the contemporary thinkers who followed the social Darwinist paradigm; Weber wanted above all to explain the peculiarities of Western civilization. [73] He claimed that Calvinist (and by extension Protestant) religious ideas had a great influence on social innovation and the development of the Western economic system, but noted that they were not the only factors in this development. Other notable factors mentioned by Weber were the rationalism of scientific pursuit, the fusion of observation with mathematics, science and jurisprudence, the rational systematization and bureaucratization of public administration and economic enterprise. [73] Ultimately, Weber`s study of the sociology of religion focused on a distinctive part of Western culture, the decline of belief in magic, or what he called the “disenchantment of the world.” [73]. Science, whose purpose is to interpret the meaning of social action and thus give a causal explanation of how action takes place and the effects it causes.