Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.17323/1728-192x-2019-2-16-27
W. Outhwaite
Weber’s concept of “rationalization” is rightly seen as the core of his mature thought. At the same time, there has been increasing attention to his “ambivalence” towards the rationalization of economic, administrative and political process-es, and of the conduct of life altogether. The themes of his nationalism and the irrational tendencies of his complex personality have also become increasingly prominent. While nationalism may not be per se irrational, any nationalist is logically compelled (at least in principle) to recognize the legitimacy of other - possibly opposed - nationalisms. Weber attempted to avoid this paradox of nationalism by stressing the particular responsibility of larger states, albeit with the problematic concept of the “Herrenvolk.” This article explores Weber’s nationalism and current nationalist and populist tendencies, in the light of his conception of sovereignty, democracy and plebiscitary leadership (Fuhrerdemo-kratie). “Sovereignty,” I suggest, has become a shibboleth in the twenty-first century, notably in the US, Russia, Tur-key, Hungary and Poland, and in the current debacle in the UK. Although Weber uses the word “sovereignty” very rarely, the concept is at the centre of his sociology of the state and also, I suggest, of his conception of rationalization. There is a parallel with his use of the term “nation.”
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Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.17323/1728-192x-2019-2-138-145
N. Golovin
The influence of the Great War on the personality, sociology, political activity, and views of Max Weber has not yet been sufficiently researched. The second complete edition of works by Max Weber presents us with new opportunities to conduct a historical and sociological analysis of these issues. His personal letters and essays written during the Great War provide us with highly informative materials for such research. These materials, some of which are not widely known, are studied in the article from the perspective of historical sociology, whose co-founder was Weber himself. At the very beginning of the Great War, Max Weber underwent an emotional experience. He gave up lecturing for two years of army service in the hospital commission. After his service, he would make the shift to political speeches, dec-larations, and opinion essays. His previous understanding of the essence of war had been critically re-evaluated from the national and patriotic to the insight that Germany during and after the war would face a difficult choice between the trajectory of individual historical development and the Western path to political freedom. The article analyzes and sums up Weber’s criticism of the politics of the German High Command which had obtained virtual governmental power in Germany. In particular, the article studies Weber’s criticism of the total submarine warfare started by the German mili-tary in 1917-1918 and its political consequences. This political prevarication used by the commanders at the end of the Great War resulted in the tight connection between democracy and military defeat in German public opinion. Some of Weber’s political forecasts are summed up and critically evaluated.
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Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.17323/1728-192X-2019-2-41-61
K. Gaaze
Post-truth as a form of epistemological democracy (Fuller, 2018) is a fight for authority between equal explanatory models with epistemological methods. What should a disciplinary reaction of sociology be to the dawn of post-truth? We are to re-investigate models of causal imputation within the domain of sociology in order to eliminate not any particular “bad” judgments of post-truth, but their logical forms. Max Weber spent at least five years developing a consistent theory of causation for sociology. To build his complex theoretical apparatus of causal imputation, Weber used the ideas of Johannes von Kries, a German psychologist and a philosopher of science. Because of logical vulnerabilities of von Kries’s theory, both Weberian models of causal imputation can lead to the emergence of at least two forms of illegitimate judgments. However, Weber was not only mistaken but he also succeeded. The reading of his second model of causation, the “chance causation,” can contribute to the debates over the notion of the subjective meaning in Weber’s interpretative sociology.
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