Max Weber
All knowledge of cultural reality, as may be seen, is always knowledge from particular points of view. ~ Max Weber
Albeit viewing sociology as a hard science, German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist Max Weber (1864–1920) rejected Comte’s positivism, offering instead antipositivism: that people may only be understood via empathic identification. Swimming against the contemporaneous behaviorist stream of psychology, Weber did not think that relying upon insight was contrary to being objective.
Every type of purely direct concrete description bears the mark of artistic portrayal. ~ Max Weber
Weber believed that Marx’s analysis of class struggle was oversimplified (thought essentially on the money). Weber saw 3 dimensions of social stratification: class (economic), status/prestige (cultural) and power (political). Weber also emphasized how ideas shaped society.
The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world. ~ Max Weber
Weber extended Marx’s worry over laborers not owning their tools to a broader social trend: that of increasing bureaucratization, where all workers lacked ownership interest in their equipment or endeavors. Whereas earlier sociologists had admired a mechanistic model, Weber feared that socialism – in turning over the means of production to governments – would simply enhance the power of bureaucracies: the impersonality, routine, and regimentation of which Weber detested.
The fully developed bureaucratic apparatus compares with other organizations exactly as does the machine with the non-mechanical modes of production. ~ Max Weber
