Weber, Max, German sociologist

Weber, Max (mäks vā`bər), 1864–1920, German sociologist, economist, and political scientist. At various times he taught at Berlin, Freiburg, Munich, and Heidelberg. One of Weber's chief interests was in developing a methodology for social science, and his works had a considerable influence on 20th-century social scientists. As a technique of sociological analysis, he devised the concept of "ideal types," generalized models of historical situations that could be used as a basis for comparing societies. He opposed the orthodox Marxian view of the time that economics was the preeminent determining factor in social causation and instead stressed the plurality and interdependence of causes. Weber emphasized the role of religious values, ideologies, and charismatic leaders in shaping societies. In his Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1920, tr. 1930) he developed a thesis concerning the intimate connection between the ascetic ideal fostered by Calvinism and the rise of capitalist institutions. A keen observer of politics in his own time, he first admired, then repudiated Otto von Bismarck, and he later advocated for Germany a democratic form of government somewhat on the American model. He has also been influential in using statistical sociology in the study of economic policy. Among his other books are Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft [economy and society] (4th ed. 1956) and General Economic History (1924, tr. 1927).

Bibliography

See From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (with a biography and appraisal by H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, 1946); studies by J. Freund (1968), A. Mitzman (1969), W. G. Runciman (1972), D. Beetham (1974), W. J. Mommsen (1974), G. Roth (1979), and J. Alexander (1983).

Weber, Max, American painter

Weber, Max (mäks wĕb`ər), 1881–1961, American painter, b. Russia. At 10 he accompanied his family to Brooklyn, N.Y. He studied art at Pratt Institute and in 1905 went abroad. In Paris he studied under J. P. Laurens, later visiting Spain and Italy and returning to New York in 1909. Weber's work in the following decade was fauvist and then cubist inspired. Characteristic of the latter trend is his well-known Chinese Restaurant (Whitney Mus., New York City). He began to introduce Jewish subjects into his work c.1917. During the 1920s, Weber alternated painting with teaching. Contemporary and social themes were his subjects in the 1930s, when his work became increasingly abstract and revealed a new energetic use of line. Weber is represented in leading galleries throughout the United States. He wrote several essays on art theory.

Bibliography

See study by L. Goodrich (1949).

Weber, Max

(born April 21, 1864, Erfurt, Prussia—died June 14, 1920, Munich, Ger.) German sociologist and political economist. Son of a wealthy liberal politician and a Calvinist mother, Weber was a compulsively diligent scholar who suffered occasional nervous collapses. Insights derived from his own experience inform his most famous and controversial work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904–05), which examines the relationship between Calvinist (or Puritan) morality, compulsive labour, bureaucracy, and economic success under capitalism (see Protestant ethic). Weber also wrote penetratingly on social phenomena such as charisma and mysticism, which he saw as antithetical to the modern world and its underlying process of rationalization. His efforts helped establish sociology as an academic discipline in Germany, and his work continues to stimulate scholarship. Through his insistence on the need for objectivity and his analysis of human action in terms of motivation, he profoundly influenced sociological theory. His voluminous writings, mostly published posthumously, include Economy and Society (2 vol., 1922–25) and General Economic History (1923).

Weber, Max (1881–1961) painter, sculptor; born in Bialystok, Russia. Emigrating with his family to Brooklyn (1891), he studied at the Pratt Institute (1898–1900), in Paris with Matisse (1908), then settled in New York (1909). His paintings and sculptures were influenced by expressionism, as seen in The Geranium (1911), and by cubism, as in Chinese Restaurant (1915). He moved to Garden City, Long Island (1920) and began his representational period. By the late 1930s he focused on religious subjects, as in Adoration of the Moon (1944).