Max Weber, Rationality and Modernity

Lash, Scott; Whimster, Sam

doi:10.4324/9781315823935

Cited by 29 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…While the basic narrative stays the same, each religious epoch adopts a particular perspective on the biblical myth. By explaining the specific cultural significance of different interpretations of the biblical myth Weber provides insight in three antinomies: (1) the ability to act and control our lives versus the objectifying consequences of action; (2) the objectivity of truth versus the relativism of knowledge, and (3) the commitment to values and beliefs versus the instrumental responsibility to the consequences of one's actions (Whimster & Scott, 1987, p. 5). Moreover, because the different interpretations of the Fall in the Judeo‐Christian tradition typically imply a succession of three distinctive phases—a prelapsarian thesis, a postlapsarian‐sinful antithesis and a postlapsarian‐redemptive synthesis—we will argue that it is even more appropriate to speak of three dialectics: (1) a dialectic of freedom and domination; (2) a dialectic of objective and subjective meaning; and (3) a dialectic of unity and differentiation.…”

Section: Weber’s Dialectics Of the Fallmentioning

confidence: 99%

Max Weber’s antinomies of the Fall: Paradisiacal ethics and the populistZeitgeist

Thijssen

2020

British Journal of Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article points out that the way the biblical myth of the Fall has been interpreted in the Judeo‐Christian tradition is a crucial heuristic in the works of Max Weber, an assessment that hitherto largely remained unnoticed. Nevertheless, Weber's understanding of everyday action is closely related to the various religious interpretations of what deprivations were suffered by humanity as a consequence of Adam's original sin and the paradisiacal yearning for salvation it engenders. Moreover, Weber's interpretation of the Fall is characteristic for his tragic sociology in the sense that it guarantees the freedom to subjectively create self‐conscious meaning that is, however, no longer embedded in a context of common knowledge. His solution to this epistemological problem involves a Nietzschean heroic existentialism whereby individuals give personality to one's character by freely choosing their own values. Yet, he also realizes that many will not be able to choose by themselves and, therefore, will be attracted by charismatic leaders that can invoke a paradisiacal community of choice. Weber's modern antinomical interpretation of the Fall is still relevant today because it provides insight in the epistemological underpinnings of the contemporary populist Zeitgeist.

show abstract

Section: Weber’s Dialectics Of the Fallmentioning

confidence: 99%

Max Weber’s antinomies of the Fall: Paradisiacal ethics and the populistZeitgeist

Thijssen

2020

British Journal of Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Furthermore, it represents "the purposeful calculation of the most efficient means to an end" (Cockerham et al, 1993, p. 413), legitimising such calculation by referring back to universal laws, regulations, or rules (Kalberg 1980). Whimster and Lash (2014) interpreted formal rationality as "the strategy of adapting one's own conduct of life to the predetermined purposes of the kind that the capitalist system has imposed on modern man, whether he wanted or not" (p. 43).…”

Section: Weber's Types Of Rationalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Profit Is Not a Dirty Word’: Social Entrepreneurship and Community Development

Alonso

Kok

O’Brien

2019

Journal of Social Entrepreneurship

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…'Circumstances not of their own making' include technical and instrumental rationality characteristic of modernity (Whimster & Lash, 1987;Feenberg, 2010) which may lead to 'moral blindness' (Baumann & Donskis, 2013).…”

Section: Structured Agencymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The critical realist concept of ‘generative mechanisms’ (a process held to account for an observable phenomenon such as stress, burnout, or even health inequalities) also informs this analysis (Archer et al ., ). ‘Circumstances not of their own making’ include technical and instrumental rationality characteristic of modernity (Whimster & Lash, ; Feenberg, ) which may lead to ‘moral blindness’ (Baumann & Donskis, ).…”

Section: Structured Agencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Lying to ourselves: rationality, critical reflexivity, and the moral order as ‘structured agency’

Goodman

2016

Nursing Philosophy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A report suggests that United States' army officers may engage in dishonest reporting regarding their compliance procedures. Similarly, nurses with espoused high ethical standards sometimes fail to live up to them and may do so while deceiving themselves about such practices. Reasons for lapses are complex. However, multitudinous managerial demands arising within 'technical and instrumental rationality' may impact on honest decision-making. This paper suggests that compliance processes, which operates within the social structural context of the technical and instrumental rationality manifest as 'managerialism', contributes to professional 'dishonesty' about lapses in care, sometimes through 'thoughtlessness'. The need to manage risk, measure, account, and control in order to deliver efficiency, effectiveness, and economy (technical rationality) thus has both unintended and dysfunctional consequences. Meeting compliance requirements may be mediated by factors such as the 'affect heuristic' and 'reflexive deliberations' as part of the 'structured agency' of nurses. It is the complexity of 'structured agency' which may explain why some nurses fail to respond to such things as sentinel events, a failure to recognize 'personal troubles' as 'public issues', a failure which to outsiders who expect rational and professional responses may seem inconceivable. There is a need to understand these processes so that nurses can critique the context in which they work and to move beyond either/or explanations of structure or agency for care failures, and professional dishonesty.

show abstract

Max Weber, Rationality and Modernity

Cited by 29 publications

References 0 publications

Max Weber’s antinomies of the Fall: Paradisiacal ethics and the populistZeitgeist

Max Weber’s antinomies of the Fall: Paradisiacal ethics and the populistZeitgeist

‘Profit Is Not a Dirty Word’: Social Entrepreneurship and Community Development

Lying to ourselves: rationality, critical reflexivity, and the moral order as ‘structured agency’

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About