A staunch opponent of National Socialism. Selected: The Crisis of European Culture The External Structure of History
Alfred Weber was born on July 30, 1868 in Erfurt, a large city in Prussian Saxony, and grew up in Charlottenburg, a district in the west of Berlin. He was one of seven children in the family of Max Weber Sr., a prominent National Liberal politician and civil servant, and Helene Fallenstein. The elder Weber's involvement in public life brought the whole house into politics, turning it into a popular salon in which many prominent scientists and public figures of his time gathered and talked. This could not but have a certain influence on the career choice of Alfred and his brother Max (Max Weber), who is considered one of the founders of modern sociology and public administration.
In 1888, after graduating from school, Weber became a student at the University of Bonn, where he studied archeology and art history, but a year later he transferred to the University of Tübingen and switched to law. He completed his studies in Berlin in 1892, passing the first state exam after returning from military service.
In 1897, Weber received a degree in economics, writing a dissertation on the topic of domestic industry. Having received an assistant professorship in 1900 for work on the same topic, Weber taught at the University of Berlin until in 1904 he went to the German Carl Ferdinand University in Prague, where he studied students such as Max Brod and Felix Weltsch. It was also there that he became the supervisor of Franz Kafka while he was working on his dissertation in law.
From 1907 to 1933, Weber served as professor of political economy at the University of Heidelberg, until he was fired from there for criticizing the Hitler regime. Here he also met Else von Richthofen, the wife of the economist Edgar Jaffé, a former student of his older brother Max Weber. Elsa, estranged from her husband, became Alfred's mistress (however, she also had a relationship with Max Weber). Later, Alfred and Elsa even settled in the same house and lived together for several years after the death of her husband, although their relationship did not end in marriage.
In Heidelberg, Weber maintained close contacts with many prominent representatives of the scientific, cultural and intellectual circles, among them his brother's wife, sociologist and feminist Marianne Weber, economists Eberhard Gothein and Emil Lederer, historian Karl Ludwig Hampe and archaeologist Ludwig Curtius, philosopher Karl Jaspers, as well as young Erich Fromm and Norbert Elias.
With the outbreak of World War I, Alfred Weber volunteered for the front, and after the armistice he found himself among the founders of the German Democratic Party (Deutsche Demokratische Partei, DDP) and spent a month as its chairman. After resigning, Weber returned to academic activity in Heidelberg.
Weber, a staunch opponent of National Socialism, nevertheless remained in Nazi Germany during World War II, but was one of the leaders of the intellectual Resistance. After 1945, his work and teaching, aimed at supporting the philosophical and political restoration of the German nation, had significant influence both in academic circles and beyond. Weber was reinstated as professor in 1945 and continued to teach until his death in Heidelberg. He died on May 2, 1958, at the age of 89.
Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (German: Maximilian Carl Emil Weber, April 21, 1864, Erfurt, Prussia - June 14, 1920, Munich, Germany), known as Max Weber (German: Max Weber) was a German sociologist, philosopher, historian, and political economist.
Weber's ideas had a significant influence on the development of social sciences, especially sociology. Along with Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx, Weber is considered one of the founders of sociological science.
Weber introduced the term “ social action" The scientist was a consistent supporter of antipositivist methods, arguing that not a purely empirical, but an “explanatory”, “interpretive” method is better suited for the study of social actions. Within the framework of the concept of understanding sociology based on it, the scientist tried not only to consider this or that social action, but also to recognize the purpose and meaning of what was happening from the point of view of the individuals involved.
The core of Weber's scientific interests was the study of the processes of transition of society from traditional to modern: rationalization, secularization, “disenchantment of the world.” One of the scientist’s most famous works was his dissertation on the Protestant origins of capitalism. Research at the intersection of economic sociology and the sociology of religion was developed in the famous book “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,” which was published in 1905.
Opposing the Marxist concept of historical materialism, Weber noted the importance of the cultural influences exerted by religion - it was in this that he saw the key to understanding the genesis of the capitalist form of economic management. Subsequently, the scientist studied the religions of China, India and ancient Judaism, trying to find in them the causes of those processes that determined the differences between the economic structure of the West and the East.
In his other famous work, Politics as a Vocation and Profession (1919), Weber defined the state as an institution that has a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. The sociologist was the first to identify different types of public power, emphasizing that the institutions of the modern state are increasingly based on the rational-legal type. The scientist made a certain contribution to the development economic history, theories and methodology of economics. Weber's research in the field of rationalization of society influenced the formation of critical theory, which developed mainly within the framework of the Frankfurt School.
Weber became one of the founders of the liberal German Democratic Party, which was formed after the First World War. Later, the scientist unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the German parliament and advised a commission to draft a new constitution. Weber died in 1920 at the age of 56, caused by the Spanish flu pandemic and subsequent pneumonia. Weber's younger brother Alfred also became a researcher in the field of sociology.
Books (12)
Agrarian history of the Ancient World
The next book in the large series “TsFS Publications” (small series “LOGICA SOCIALIS”) is the first book in a two-volume series, which includes three works on historical sociology that are very important for understanding the work of M. Weber: “Agrarian History Ancient world", "Economy History" and "City".
The first book includes “Agrarian History of the Ancient World” and, as an appendix, M. Rostovtsev’s article “Colonate”, which is very important for understanding all three works of M. Weber.
Power and politics
The centuries-old debate about the nature of power between such classics of political thought as Machiavelli and Montesquieu, Hobbes and Schmitt does not lose its relevance today. One of the leading experts in political philosophy, Alexander Filippov, will help you understand the subtleties and nuances of this conversation.
Max Weber is one of the greatest political thinkers of the 20th century. He actively participated in political life Germany, was a brilliant publicist and the author of a number of in-depth studies modern politics. Weber became famous primarily for his fundamental works, in which, in particular, he proposed a taxonomy of sociological concepts, among which one of the central places is occupied by the concepts of power and domination. The works collected in this volume combine theoretical and methodological work with concepts, topical analysis of party political life and a broad historical-critical presentation of the evolution of the political profession in the West in the modern era, the era of rational bureaucracy and charisma of leaders.
This volume, compiled by Alexander Filippov, includes the works “Parliament and Government in the New Germany”, “Politics as a Vocation and Profession” and “Basic Sociological Concepts”.
Introductory article by A.F. Filippova. Comments by Dmitriev T.A.
City
Definitions of “city” can be very different in nature.
What they all have in common is only one thing: that the city is a closed (at least relatively) settlement, “ locality", rather than one or more separately located dwellings. In cities (though not only in cities), houses are crowded - and today, as a rule, wall to wall - adjacent to each other.
Favorites. Image of society
The book is a collection of works by one of the leading Western sociologists, M. Weber.
The publication includes the following works: “Sociology of Religion”, “Introduction” to “Economic Ethics of World Religions”, “City”, “ Social reasons the fall of ancient culture", "Rational and sociological foundations of music".
Selected works
The book is a collection of works on sociology by one of the leading Western sociologists of the 19th - 20th centuries. Max Weber (1864-1920), who had and continues to have a significant influence on its development.
The works included in the collection reflect his ideas about the connection between sociology and history, about “understanding sociology”, the concept of “ideal types”, etc. M. Weber is often called in the West “the great bourgeois antipode of Karl Marx” and even “the Marx of the bourgeoisie” "
The book includes: “Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism”, research on the methodology of science, various sociological articles.
Science as a calling and profession
this work is a report (translated with slight abbreviations) given by Weber in the winter of 1918 at the University of Munich with the immediate purpose of showing students what their calling was as future scientists and teachers.
About Russia
The collection includes abridged versions of two large essays, full texts or fragments of newspaper articles by Max Weber directly related to Russia. Weber analyzes in them the socio-political situation in Russia in 1905-1906 and 1917-1918. Weber discusses the prospects for liberal democracy and constitutional monarchy in Russia, assesses the various social forces in Russian society and the nature of the Russian revolutionary movement.
The book is intended for everyone who is interested in the political history of Russia.
Political works 1895–1919
The book is a collection of works by an outstanding German sociologist.
Max Weber's articles and speeches on political problems, despite their relevance, had never been published in Russia before and were known to a narrow circle of specialists. This collection is intended to fill this gap.
“Our generation is not destined to see whether the struggle we are waging will bear fruit; whether posterity recognizes us as their ancestors. If we cannot escape the curse that we face—being born after a politically great era—then we must be able to become something else: the forerunners of an even greater one. Will this be our place in history? I don’t know and I’ll just say: the right of young people is to defend themselves and their ideals. And it is not years that turn a person into an old man: he is young as long as he is able to perceive the world with those great passions that nature has invested in us.”
Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism
The book contains the work “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” by M. Weber, where he shows the relationship between Protestant religious values and the development of the “spirit of capitalism,” arguing that in countries where these values dominated, capitalist relations were established faster and easier. The book also includes articles by V.L. Kerov “The modern sound of the theory of M. Weber and A.I. Neusykhin about Protestantism”, M.I. Lapitsky “Religious foundations economic activity", I.V. Zabaeva "Religion and the problem of modernization (on the example of M. Weber and S. Bulgakov)."
St. Petersburg: University Book, 1998. 565 p.
Series Book of Light
ISBN 5-7914-0032-2, ISBN 5-7914-0023-3
DjVu 10.4 MB
Quality: scanned pages + text layer
Language: Russian
Alfred Weber (1868-1958) - German sociologist, cultural scientist, historian, keenly aware of character and direction social history and political trends. A shocked witness to two catastrophes in European history, and especially Germany, he is in two books published in this volume, “The Third or Fourth Man” (1953) and “Farewell to Old History” (1946) and small collections of articles devoted to the most pressing problems modern history, seeks answers about the meaning of history, the capabilities and duty of man, the role of the masses and the responsibilities of spiritual and political leaders to them and society as a whole. One of his main thoughts is the irrevocable completion of a long historical journey European culture and the offensive is fundamental new era, the outlines of which can only be guessed.
It is translated into Russian for the first time.
Fundamental remarks on the sociology of culture.
The social process, the process of civilization and the movement of culture. Translation by M.L. Levina 7
Ideas for problems of sociology of state and culture. Translation and notes by T.E. Egorova 41
Preface 41
Introduction 42
Part I. Fundamental Notes 66
I. Sociological concept of culture 66
II. Sociology of culture and interpretation of the meaning of history 79
Part II. Shards of ideas 86
I. Constitutional or parliamentary government in Germany? 86
II. Theodor Mommsen 94
III. Culture type and its changes 101
IV. Official 106
V. The importance of spiritual leaders in Germany 125
VI. Spirit and Politics 143
VII. Germans in the spiritual space of Europe 153
Notes 162
Translator's Notes 163
Germany and the crisis of European culture. Translation by T.E. Egorova 169
Preface 169
Germany and the crisis of European culture 170
France and Europe 181
Germany and the East 189
Translator's Notes 197
Third or fourth person. On the meaning of historical existence. Translation by ML. Levina 199
Preface 199
Chapter I. Man and Earth in History 200
1. External structure of history 200
2. New situation in relation to man and the Earth 205
Chapter 2. Man and his changes 212
1. Person 212
2. Human changes 218
3. Interpretation of changes 221
Chapter 3. The form of modern existence and its danger 223
1. Third and fourth person 223
2. Old bureaucracy and tendencies of freedom 225
3. Partial technicalization 228
4. Full power of the apparatus. External threat 229
5. Spiritual sphere 231
6. Impact on the world 238
Russia 239
Rest of the world 242
7. Internal danger to the West 247
8. The fate of man 252
9. Social dynamics and the possibility of intervention 254
Chapter 4. Man and Transcendence 260
1. Comprehension 260
2. A number of previous types of comprehension 264
3. Call 272
Chapter 5. Attitude to philosophy and science 277
1. Logical verification and philosophical speculation 277
2. Position of natural science 279
Chapter 6. On the question of the objective structure of the field of immanent transcendence 284
1. Capabilities of perception 284
2. Boundaries of perception 285
3. Vital and supervital forces 289
4. Human position 292
5. Mathematics and transcendental catharsis 294
Chapter 7. Rhythmization of history and interpretation of its meaning 300
1. Results of history and vital forces 300
2. Possible meaningfulness of history 304
3. Mental comprehension and the process of consciousness in history 307
4. Formation of being through interpretations of meaning 311
5. Supra-purposeful interpretations of meaning and their distribution 318
6. The sequence of historical steps and the task set... 325
7. Corollary 330
Chapter 8. Evidence of Fine Art 332
1. Impression 332
2. Attempt to analyze 337
Supplement to the “Principles of History and Sociology of Culture” 344
Note 349
Application 350
I. Science and lifestyle 350
II. University and historical situation 355
III. Architecture today 364
Farewell to the old story. Overcoming nihilism? Translation by M.I. Levina 375
Preliminary remarks 375
Appendix 376
Introduction. About what we're talking about 377
First chapter. Western Feature 386
1. Awakening in dogma, the nature of dynamism 386
2. Homeric period of Europe (1000-1250) 392
Second chapter. Softening of dogma and breakthrough into depth 393
1. Dante 393
2. Leonardo and Michelangelo 394
3. Shakespeare 398
4. Cervantes 409
Third chapter. Redogmatization, reflection, loneliness 410
1. Redogmatization and naturalization of existence 410
2. XVII century 412
3. Rembrandt 416
Chapter Four. Dogmatics and prophetic visions 418
1. XVIII century 418
2. Transition period 427
Fifth chapter. Completeness and destruction: 19th century 432
1. Implementation 432
2. Explosive dynamism. Spiritual gap. Loss of depth 433
3. Periods 441
Chapter six. Nietzsche and catastrophe 456
1. Nietzsche 456
2. The period of apparent calm (1890-1914) and the disaster 494
Chapter seven. Today and our task 500
Fragments to Immediate Transcendence 521
Preamble 521
1. Direct transcendence (essence and comprehension): transcendence in the inanimate 522
2. Immediate transcendence in the purely vital. (Biological Transcendence) 523
3. Direct soul-spiritual transcendence 524
Notes 535
Yu.N. Davydov. Alfred Weber and his cultural sociological vision of history 539
Alfred Weber and Max Weber: ideological differences and theoretical and methodological differences 540
Alfred Weber and Oswald Spengler: components of the cultural sociological construct 545
Alfred Weber and Friedrich Nietzsche: cultural sociology of history as a tool for social diagnostics. 547
Notes 552
Bibliography of the works of Alfred Weber. Make up T.E. Egorova 553
Index of names. Compose E.N. Balashova 554
T.Yu. Sidorina
Weber Alfred (1868-1958) - German. philosopher, sociologist and cultural theorist, economist and political scientist. Having started his scientific career as an economist, a researcher of German placement problems. industry, V. moves on to problems of philosophy and sociology of culture.
V.'s creativity was largely formed under the influence of A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche and O. Spengler, as well as in the context of ideological differences and theoretical disagreements with his brother, an outstanding German. sociologist - M. Weber. He taught at the Berlin, Prague (1904-1907) and Heidelberg (from 1907 until almost his death) high schools. After the National Socialists came to power in Germany, V. retired from teaching and devoted himself entirely to scientific pursuits. During this period, they were created most important works V. in the field of sociology of culture. In 1924, a collection of works was published in Berlin. his articles “Germany and the Crisis of European Culture,” in which he summed up his many years of reflection on the fate of Europe after the First World War. In 1935, V.’s main work, “The History of Culture as Cultural Sociology,” was published in Leiden. According to V., long before the outbreak of the First World War, the deep-seated problems generated by the 19th century were clearly revealed. Along with the high perfection of his technical and intellectual achievements, the intensive formation of new opportunities and forms of activity, the tension of the living space in which all this was created was revealed.
As the material principle won and the struggle for its interests acquired decisive importance, the belief in achieving a harmonious balance disappeared, and the general substance of the European spirit began to creep away and disappear. V. saw a way out of this situation in a new organization and restoration of the dynamics of the European spirit. How this could happen was not yet entirely clear to him. First of all, you need to understand the inner content of what needs to be defended and restored. We must know, notes V., how, in the conditions of a newly organized Europe, we use its spiritual potential, on which it has hitherto been based, how we should deal with the dynamic energy of Europeanism, its desire for infinity, with which it was born in the appearance of German-Roman Europe. It is impossible and not necessary to get rid of these dynamic properties of the European essence, otherwise the inhabitants of Europe would cease to be Europeans, remain themselves. Europeans can coexist with each other and with other historical communities in the new conditions of earthly space and existence only if it is possible to establish the priority of the spiritual principle over external forces, while remembering the patterns and rules of balancing forces discovered by the era of the harmonious development of Europe, even if the methods of application and implementation of these patterns and rules turn out to be different.
The main thing is to make the spiritual principle, that which is above all, so strong that it again directs the course of development. But this can only happen when Europeans are able to turn their inclination towards external expansion inwards, to transform the desire for infinity from external into intrinsic property. This does not mean an attempt to transform from active, active people into empty dreamers, abstract metaphysicians, gravitating towards self-reflection. This is a turn towards the deepening and continuous improvement of what each people comes into the world with as a spiritual integrity and at the same time in its cultural peculiarities. The general concept of social development helps to clarify these somewhat abstract and, as it soon became clear, unrealistic forecasts about Europe’s exit from the spiritual crisis. In it he identifies three aspects, or three areas of development. Social process- this is the sphere of socio-economic relations, the area of government and politics, in which the strong-willed and powerful forces of man are expressed. This is the sphere of “real sociology”, reflecting the basic processes of the existence and development of society. Civilization process V. refers to the field of science and technology. The scientific and technological sphere is transcultural; its achievements can be easily transmitted from one culture to another. The spiritual core of historical and national forms of life is the cultural sphere. This is a world of ideas, symbols, myths; it is individual, unique in its essence.
The cultural sphere is developing along unpredictable and unique paths. It is the essence of an emanation of creative will, connecting people with the eternal and mysterious principles of world existence. It is the state of this spiritual core that causes anxiety in V. Economics, politics and the instrumental reason of civilization obscured and turned people away from the cultural movement, as a result of which European society strayed from its intended path. Accordingly, V. suggests looking for a way out of the crisis in an update, a new understanding of the cultural idea that has long been inherent in Europeans.
Bibliography
Germany and the crisis of European culture // Culturology. XX century Anthology. M., 1995
Selected: The crisis of European culture. St. Petersburg, 1998
Religion und Culture. Berlin, 1912
Die Krise des modernen Staatsgedankens in Europa. Bern, 1925
Ideen zur Staats und Kultursociologie. Karlsruhe, 1927
Kulturgeschichte als Kultursoziologie. Leiden, 1935
Prinzipien der Geschichts und Kultursoziologie. Leiden, 1951
Abschied von der bisherengen Geschichte: Uberwindung des Nihilismus. Bern, 1946
Der dritte oder der vierte Mensch: Vom Sinn des geschichtlichen Daseins? Munchen, 1953
Deushland und die europaische Kulturkrise. Berlin, 1994, Sidorina T.Yu. Humanity between destruction and prosperity: philosophy of crisis in the 20th century. M., 1997
Davydov Yu.N. Alfred Weber and his cultural and sociological vision of history // Weber A. Selections: The Crisis of European Culture. St. Petersburg, 1998
Eckert R. Kultur, Zivilization und Gesellschaft: Die Geschichtstheorie Alfred Webers. Tubingen, 1990,
Weber Alfred
Weber Alfred (1868 - 1958)
Alfred Weber, brother of the more famous sociologist Max Weber, made his only contribution to economic theory in his book Theory of the Location of Industries (1909), but it is a contribution that still influences the literature on economics today. placement of production in space. Long before Weber, Thunen and Launhardt created the theory of the location of economic activity as an independent field of economic theory. However, Weber's book should be seen as the first successful treatise on location theory in the sense of inspiring sustained interest and ongoing research in location theory as a specialized field of economics. Weber's thoughts on the productive use of territory were in many respects anticipated by Launhardt, but he went further than Launhardt by supplementing the analysis with differential labor costs and differential transport costs and introducing “agglomeration economies”, i.e. reduction of unit costs solely due to the concentration or agglomeration of plants in neighboring territories. Even when dealing with the classic "three point problem" in economic location theory (the optimal location of an industrial plant using raw materials located in two different locations and serving a market located in a third location), Weber developed a simpler and more general graphical technique for analyzing such problems compared to what Launhardt managed to invent.
Fully reproducing Thünen's style of thinking, Weber considered his analysis to be a pure theory of the location of economic activity, independent of topography, climate, transport technology, quality of management, etc., focusing almost entirely on the influence of transport costs as a linear function of distance and on the weight of goods transported . He assumed that each industrial plant produces only one given product at a fixed ratio of resources, and tried to determine the optimal geographical location for such plants, the only optimality criterion of which would be to minimize the total costs of transporting all resources and products. Weber focused on the question of whether raw materials are included in finished products all of its weight or, as in the case of iron ore in steelmaking, it loses all or part of its weight through combustion or other purification processes. When the production process creates additional weight, the plant location moves closer to the point of consumption. On the other hand, when weight is lost, the plant is located closer to raw material deposits. However, he still took into account cases where the location of factories deviates from the corresponding communication routes due to the fact that the difference in labor costs exceeds the difference in transport costs. In addition to variable labor costs, there are offsetting economies of agglomeration in the form of improved markets, greater proximity to supporting industries, and access to existing labor sources, which tend to concentrate plants in major cities. All these elements are expressed through several digital coefficients and graphically represented using so-called “isodapanes” (lines of equal increments in the costs of transporting factors of production and manufactured products).
Criticisms of Weber have become the template for commentary on the history of the economics of space. He is constantly accused of neglecting demand; in concentrating attention on the uninteresting case of producers and consumers concentrated at a single point, instead of constantly being dispersed throughout the entire economic space; in the use of transport functions that represent only a linear dependence on weight and distance, as if we were talking about direct air routes, and, in general, for neglecting the issue of locating production in an engineering rather than an economic context, i.e. in terms of the physical characteristics of the raw materials and production processes, rather than prices and replacement rates. Weber never responded to any of these criticisms, but for nearly twenty years many of his students continued to use his ideas in studying the location of specific German industries. Weber himself turned to a completely different method of the theory of the location of economic activity, barely touched upon in the last chapter of “The Theory of the Location of Production” and more associated with the historical and evolutionary prejudices of the German historical school. However, by the beginning of the First World War, he finally abandoned the theory of placement to study sociology and political science. He retired as a professor at the University of Heidelberg in 1933 and published his last book in 1953 at the age of 85, five years before his death. However, he did not write any more works on the theory of location of economic activity.
Literature
E . Salin, Weber, Alfred, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, vol. 16, ed.D.L. Sills (Macmillan Free Press, 1968).