The sociological explanation of ‘religious’ beliefs

1969 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. G. Runciman
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
The Third ◽  
Sociological Explanation

The aim of this paper is methodological, not substantive. In the first section I shall discuss the familiar problem of how ‘religious’ beliefs can, if at all, be usefully distinguished from beliefs of other kinds (1). In the second, I shall try to suggest what constitutes an adequate sociological explanation of beliefs in general. In the third, I shall illustrate my argument by a direct comparison between Max Weber and fimile Durkheim (2).

Max Weber as an Economist: Revisiting Max Weber’s Legacy 100 Years after His Passing

2020 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-222
Author(s):  
Marek Louzek
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Social Scientist ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
Methodological Individualism ◽  
The Third ◽  
Value Neutrality ◽  
The Ideal

This article presents Max Weber as an economist and as a social scientist. Weber’s relations to economics, philosophy and sociology are discussed. Max Weber has more in common with economists than it might seem at first sight. His principle of value neutrality has become the foundation of the methodology of social sciences, including economics. The second point shared by Max Weber with standard economics is methodological individualism. The third point which a modern economist can learn from Max Weber is the concept of the ideal type.

scholarly journals Racionalización y poder La cuestión de la legitimidad en Weber como referente de la acción política

2017 ◽  
pp. 215
Author(s):  
Nicolás Fleet
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legitimacy Theory ◽  
General Will ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Social Interests ◽  
Political Actions

ResumenEste artículo desarrolla, en tres pasos, una perspectiva original de la teoría de la dominación de Max Weber. El primer paso establece un vínculo necesario entre las formas típicas de dominación política y los intereses sociales, de modo que toda acción política debe legitimarse ante el interés general. El segundo paso explica las crisis de legitimación como una respuesta a cambios de identidad en la base social de la dominación política, de tal forma que se introduce un concepto dinámico de legitimidad. El tercer paso establece que los valores que habitan en las formas legitimas de dominación política son usados como orientaciones simbólicas por parte de intereses sociales y acciones políticas particulares, de manera que toda forma de legitimación de la autoridad encierra, en sus propias premisas, los argumentos que justifican luchas políticas hacia la modificación de los esquemas de dominación.Palabras clave: legitimidad, dominación, acción política, democratización.Abstract This article develops, in three steps, an orignal perspective of Weber’s legitimacy theory. The first one, establishes a necessary link that exists between the typical forms of legitimate domination and the social interests, in such a way that every political action that purse the realization of its interests has to legitimate itself before the general will. The second explains the legitimation crises as a response to indentity changes at the social base of the political domination and, in so doing, it introduces a dinamic concept of legitimacy. The third step states that the values that dwell in legitimate forms of political domination are used as symbolic orientations by particular social intersts and political actions, in a way that each form of authority legitimation encapsulate, in its own premises, the arguments that justify political struggles aiming toward the modification of the domination schemes.Key words: legitimacy, domination, political action, democratization.

Christianity and Secularisation in South Africa: Probing the Possible Link between Modernisation and Secularisation

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nico Vorster
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
The Third ◽  
African Experience ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Relationship

The secularisation theory of Max Weber states that modernisation inevitably leads to the decline of religion. This theory has in recent years been challenged by the desecularisation theories of various sociologists and philosophers. This article probes the possible link between modernisation and secularisation through a case study of the Republic of South Africa. South Africa is an important case study because it went through a rapid process of modernisation from the 1990s onwards. The first section examines the secularisation thesis of Weber and his supporters, as well as theories of desecularisation. The second section discusses the periods of anti-modernisation (1910–90) and modernisation (1990–2012) in South Africa. The third section analyses statistical data on the state of religion in South Africa, while the last section offers some concluding remarks on the relationship between modernisation and secularisation in South Africa thus far. The finding of the article is that the South African experience indicates that modernisation has an impact on religion, but the effect is not necessarily one of a decline in religion. In South Africa, modernisation has led to the decline of religion in some communities and the rejuvenation of religion in others. The effect of modernisation on religion seems to depend on its interaction with a range of other social factors.

What It Takes to Clean Up Corruption

2021 ◽  
pp. 120-123
Author(s):  
Samuel Cohn
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Civil Service Reform ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Government

This chapter reviews four methods for cleaning up corruption and bureaucracy. The first method is cutting off funds to the offices of corrupt bureaucrats. The problem is, if the honest functionaries could not do anything with the old budget, they will be able to do even less with the new budget. Thus, technical demoralization gets worse. Second is the old Max Weber solution of imposing formal rational-technical bureaucracy, but this is very easy to undercut. Meanwhile, the third method is creating brand-new departments of young, idealistic uncorrupted officials. Fourth is civil service reform, which applies the Max Weber solution to every office in the government and requires massive economic growth.

Freedom of Religion

2018 ◽  
pp. 401-456
Author(s):  
Sandra Fredman
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
The State ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
The Third ◽  
State Involvement ◽  
Freedom Of Belief ◽  
Religion And State ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter considers freedom of religion in relation to three themes. The first concerns the separation of State and religion. Although a strict separation is seen as fundamental in some jurisdictions, others see religion as central to society and therefore a legitimate area of State involvement. The second concerns individual freedom of belief and manifestation. The third is equality. Section II shows how the different themes are expressed in constitutional texts. Section III deals with the relationship between the State and religion. Section IV examines how Courts determine which beliefs count as religious beliefs for the purpose of freedom of religion. Section V assesses the legitimacy of State limitations on freedom of religion and State responsibility to accommodate religion. Section VI examines conflicts between freedom of religion and other rights, particularly equality. Freedom of religion expects tolerance of religious adherents, but can religious adherents be expected to be tolerant of others?

The Third Intermediate Period

2020 ◽  
pp. 683-719
Author(s):  
David A. Aston
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
Narrative History ◽  
The Third ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
Third Intermediate Period

This chapter gives a brief overview of the character of the Third Intermediate Period reflecting on the north–south divide, the changes in religious beliefs and the growth of archaism, before concentrating on the history of the period. Scholarship on the history of the Third Intermediate Period is in a state of flux owing to the recent discoveries of new kings, and a number of new theories discussing the moving of kings from one dynasty to another, as well as changing the order of some of them. The chapter does not summarise the narrative history of the Third Intermediate Period but highlights specific historical problems and issues.

The religious background to Max Weber

1984 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 393-407
Author(s):  
Norman Stone
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Protestant Ethic ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Religious Background ◽  
Good Question ◽  
The Individual

It is easy to vulgarize Max Weber. His assertion that ‘the Protestant Ethic’ was related to capitalism could be, and was, taken to mean that Protestantism was about money whereas Catholicism was about parasitism. Weber himself stoutly denied that any such vulgarization was legitimate. He himself could not see any sense in going through religious documents of early modern Europe with a view to finding out what the various divines had to say on economic subjects: on the contrary, he stressed that ‘Of course our concern is not with what was officially and theoretically laid down in moral compendia of the age … but rather with something quite different—the secular translation (Ermittlung) of the psychological forces, created by religious beliefs and practices, which gave directions for the conduct of one’s life and held the individual to them’. Did Protestantism and Catholicism vary on the ground, in daily life, and especially in economic affairs? It was a good question, and, for the literature and research it generated, one of the most important ones of this century.

Country Bishops in Byzantine Africa (Presidential Address)

1979 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Markus
Keyword(s):  
Max Weber ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Ecclesiastical History ◽  
The Third ◽  
Set Up ◽  
European Thought ◽  
The Town ◽  
The Church

Town and countryside are contrasting, even opposed ideas: one of those doublets which have dominated European thought since antiquity. Our vocabulary of ‘politics’ and ‘civilization’ bears ample testimony to the deep hold that the prejudices of the townsmen of antiquity have established over our language and our thinking. Sometimes, even in antiquity, those prejudices would be turned on their head: the town, the exclusive milieu of culture, refinement and rational human behaviour, could become, as for instance in the eyes of a Jewish rabbi of the third century the seat of iniquity, set up to extort and to oppress. Whatever the attitude one took to the town, the dichotomy of town and countryside became almost a category in the Kantian sense in terms of which modern Europeans have come to perceive the world around them. With Max Weber it became a fundamental category of sociological understanding, with Rostovtzeff of historical analysis, especially of the ancient world in its decline; and in the hands of William Frend—the Rostovtzeff of ecclesiastical history—it showed its power to illuminate, even to transform, the study of ancient heresy and schism. ‘The church in town and countryside’ might be thought to extend the franchise of a notion which has already had too wide and at times, as some would have it, perhaps even a baleful, influence. But both the value of the notion of town and country as an interpretative tool for the ecclesiastical historian, and its limitations, its liability to obscure and to distort, will, I hope, become clearer in the course of discussion.

The Rise of New Economic Attitudes — Economic Humanism, Economic Nationalism — During the Later Middle Ages and the Renaissance, A. D. 1200–1550

Traditio ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 217-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Mcgovern
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Mental Attitude ◽  
Economic Values ◽  
The Third ◽  
Economic Attitudes ◽  
Werner Sombart ◽  
Modern Era

Since the turn of the century, historians have shown considerable interest in the origins of a capitalistic outlook in Europe. The Werner Sombart - Max Weber debate indicated that Europe had experienced the ‘emergence of a unique mental attitude towards economic activity’ sometime between the later Middle Ages and the beginning of the modern era. The importance of Max Weber's Protestant Ethic (1904) to the literature on the spirit of capitalism needs little commentary, since a clutter of expository works on his thesis already exists. Weber's Ethic gave rise to three schools of opinion concerning the period during which capitalistic attitudes began to flourish. One group of historians, still dominant, has claimed that new economic values first appeared in the course of the sixteenth century, especially in Calvinist portions of Europe. Another set of students has disagreed, finding that spokesmen truly began to assert these ideals later, in seventeenth-century forms of Puritanism or in eighteenth-century expressions of individualism. The third interpretation declares that an altered scheme of economic values appeared during the Renaissance and later Middle Ages. The mass of material produced by the first two schools has all but obliterated the small but significant literature of the third. Sufficient evidence is now available, however, to warrant a fresh evaluation of the formative stages of this change. The purpose of this essay, then, is three-fold: it intends to outline the present state of scholarly opinion about the earliest appearance of new economic attitudes, to offer a new survey of the evidence from a different perspective, and, finally, to suggest causes for the change.

scholarly journals Disorientation regarding axis supranationality / nationality in Europe

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 35-52
Author(s):  
Alpár Losoncz
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Organizational Forms ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Third ◽  
Fourth Part ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Political Form ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Selection Of

There have always been different definitions of the character of the European Union; it has been referred to as a “postmodern political form”, a “sui generisstructure”, or as a “neo-medieval empire”. Whatever the definition, supranationality is a necessary component of it. Supranationality has long been exposed to different interpretations, and the ongoing crisis is only increasing the heterogeneity in this regard. This paper is considering the ideational domain and it is an attempt to present conceptual differences regarding this subject by analyzing the relevant ideas. Our starting point is the role that Max Weber added to the ideas as such, which are the drivers of different interests. Without taking into account the organizational forms of supranationalism (we did not discuss the relationships between intergovermentalism and supranationalism), our aim here was to shed light on the existing situation regarding supranationalism by presenting a selection of confronted ideas. The paper consists of four parts. In the first part, we are questioning the possibility to subordinate supranationalism to depoliticized functionalism. The second part presents the ordo-neoliberal frameworks of European supranationalism. In the third part, we are investigating whether the notion of populism enables better understanding of supranationalism. Finally, in the fourth part, we are questioning the possibility of dichotomous interpretation of supranationalism.

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