Reading Guide: Max Weber Max Weber is sometimes called "the sociologist's sociologist." See if you can figure out why as you explore Collins' and Makowsky's very useful chapter and the readings from Weber himself (listed on the Course Outline and Readings page). Here are some questions to guide your reading and preparation for class discussion.

1. Recalling C. Wright Mills' idea that sociology illuminates the intersection of biography and history, think about how Weber's life was different from Marx's and Durkheim's, and how that might have affected his sociological theory.

2. Collins and Makowsky refer to verstehen and ideal types as Weber's "twin methods." What do these two terms mean? How do they place Weber in relation to positivism and interpretavism? Use the online Quotations from Max Weber: The Methodology of the Social Sciences to think about these questions.

3. What does Weber mean when he says: "The conclusion which follows from the above is that an 'ojective' analysis of cultural events, which proceeds according to the thesis that the ideal of science is the reduction of empirical reality to 'laws,' is meaningless?" Why does he say this and what kinds of arguments does he give?

4. What was the central intellectual task that Weber took up in almost all his work?

5. Drawing both on C&M and the quotes in Weber on Stratification and Charisma: What is Weber's theory of stratification? How is his view of stratification different from Marx's? What are the differences between classes, status groups, and parties? What generalizations does Weber draw about the relationship between these different kinds of stratification?

5. What are Weber's two main ideal types of organization? How do they differ? Why is bureaucratization one of the central currents of modern history?

6. What is the relationship between power and authority? What are Weber's three ideal types of authority? Use the online reading on charisma to explore what the defining characteristics of charismatic authority are and why it tends to be a distinctively revolutionary force in history. Take note of the last sentence--it raises the issue of the routinization of charisma, which we shall discuss in class.

7. Based on C&M and the online excerpts from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: How did Weber explain the rise of capitalist industrial civilization? What were the preconditions of its emergence? What role did he attribute to religion in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism? What argument of Weber's has come to be known as the "Weber thesis"?

8. Why do Collins and Makowsky subtitle their chapter "The Disenchantment of the World." What did this mean for Weber? Why was Weber's view of the future more pessimistic than Marx's or Durkheim's? What did he mean by suggesting that modern society had become an iron cage?