Max Weber: biography of this German sociologist and philosopher.

A summary of the life, ideas and work of Max Weber, an important German thinker.

Max Weber was a German philosopher, economist, historian, jurist, political scientist and sociologist. considered by many to be 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, is to have discovered what were the cultural determinants that allowed the development of capitalism.

Weber's thought is still very important today, although it is still controversial. We will now take a look at his life, thought and impact on German politics in the last century by means of a brief biography of Max Weber in which we will cover all these topics.

Brief biography of Max Weber

Max Weber's trajectory is characterized by his analysis of the roots of capitalism, a system already palpable in his time, as well as German politics and how the social sciences should carry out their investigative method. The life of this philosopher is that of a bourgeois, like that of many great German thinkers of his time, who could afford to philosophize in the midst of a bourgeoisie. who could afford to philosophize among the comforts of their environment. Let us 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, into a bourgeois family. into a wealthy bourgeois family. He was interested in politics from an early age, as he was the son of a prominent jurist and politician of the National Liberal Party in the Bismarck era and a member of the German Parliament.

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

University education

Max Weber studied law at the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Göttingen.. Although he enrolled in law to become a lawyer, as a young man he was very interested in economics, philosophy and, of course, politics, and taught himself about these disciplines.

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

In 1889 Weber obtained his doctorate at the University of Berlin with a thesis on the development of the principle of solidarity in family and commercial enterprises in Italian cities.

In 1890 he wrote a paper in which he dealt with the "Polish question".. At that time the eastern part of Germany was undergoing major demographic changes, as local field workers were leaving for the cities while free jobs were being filled by foreigners, mostly Poles. This work is considered one of the great works of empirical research of the time.

Professional career: teaching and travels 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 and women's rights contributions, but also for having collected and published Max Weber's not well known works after his death.

Between 1890 and 1897 Weber's career was on a good course, 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 died. Months earlier the two had had a fierce argument and had not yet made peace, which caused Max Weber to suffer a deep depression.

He managed to recover, undertaking numerous trips around Europe with his wife Marianne, although he was not able to resume his intellectual and teaching activities until 1902.

Once he was in better spirits, Weber wrote some essays on how wrote some essays on how the method of research in the social-historical sciences should be.He was to be considered one of the founders of sociology.

Final years: World War I and the Weimar Republic

At the beginning of World War I (1914-1918) Max Weber accepted the arguments for the accepted the arguments to justify Germany's involvement in the conflict.. He even served as director of the military hospitals in Heidelberg, but as the conflict developed, Weber eventually opted for a more peaceful stance.

After the war he returned to teaching with a professorship in economics, going first to Vienna and then to Heidelberg.first in Vienna and then in Munich. While in the latter 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 German constitution, from which the Weimar Republic would be born.

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

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 is not considered one of the founders of modern sociology. 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 convergent knowledge. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that his thinking had a significant impact on our modern conceptualization of sociology.

The characteristics of the social sciences

Weber considered that the social sciences possess characteristics that make them different from the natural sciences.It makes no sense, therefore, to try 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, given that social issues involve individuals with consciousness, will and intentions.

The first thing that stands out is that they have a different objective, because social branches do not deal with phenomena governed by a universal law, as might be the case with physicsThe first thing that stands out is that they have a different objective, since the social branches do not deal with phenomena governed by a universal law, as could be physics, which is governed by Newton's law of gravity or Coulomb's law of electrostatics. The social sciences study how social movements, changes in social outlook or migrations develop, processes endowed with an unrepeatable singularity.

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

Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism

One of Max Weber's fundamental works 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 form. It is thanks to these essays that Weber is regarded as a kind of "Marx of the bourgeoisie", since he both he and Karl Marx shared the idea that capitalism was the dominant aspect of the civilization of their time..

Yet, between Weber and Marx there are many differences. Unlike Karl Marx, who saw capitalism as having much to do with economic structures and class struggle, Weber saw it as the cultural nature that had allowed the rise of this economic system, along with the prevailing religious and ethical mentality of many Protestant nations.

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

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

This ethical approach to 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 was necessary to survive, since seeking to achieve more wealth than necessary was seen as a sin.

Weber and German politics

Politically, Weber's ideology could be considered as liberal, democratic and reformist. In the middle of World War I he was critical of his country's expansionist aims and, after the humiliating defeat, the philosopher gained political influence as a member of the committee of experts 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 an advocate of parliamentarism.

He had already spoken about his parliamentary and democratic interests some time earlier. 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 believed that the problems in German politics were due to a serious leadership problem.

Over the years Weber, in 1919, he founded the German Democratic PartyHe wanted to make Germany a country closer to his concept of democracy. He wanted democracy to be a tool for electing strong and charismatic leaders, where demagogy should impose its will on the masses. This vision, although well-intentioned, earned him numerous criticisms.

The European left is very critical of the figure of Max Weber on the basis of what he stated about charismatic leaders. For many, Weber is, although not voluntarily, the one who paved the intellectual ground for Adolf Hitler, a strong and charismatic leader, to seize power, abuse his charisma to impose himself as dictator and commit the terrible war crimes that took place during World War II (1939-1945).

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

Moreover, 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, it implies that the state takes absolute power in emergency situations..... This idea would, in fact, be the one that would make Hitler feel free to apply Article 48 of the Weimar Republic, taking full powers.

In Weber's defense it must 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-democratic, as well as being very concerned about the anti-Semitism of his pre-Nazi era. Weber was liberal and pro-democratic, and was very concerned about the anti-Semitism of his pre-Nazi era. He would never have agreed with state corporatism and one-party totalitarianism applied during the Third Reich, which his pupil Carl Schmitt did.

Bibliographical references:

• Ruiza, M., Fernández, T. and Tamaro, E. (2004). Biography of Max Weber. In Biografías y Vidas. The online biographical encyclopedia. Barcelona (Spain). Retrieved from https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/w/weber_max.htm on July 8, 2020.
• Weber, M. (1995) Max Weber. Una biografía. Alfons el Magnànim.
• Freund, J. (1973) Sociología de Max Weber, Península.
• Cobo Bedía, R. (1996). Marianne Weber: Max Weber. A biography. Sociológica. Revista de pensamiento social, 1996, 1: 181-185. ISSN 1137-1234.