Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

With Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx, Max Weber is considered to have fundamentally defined the methods, subjects, and scope of the field of sociology. Weber was born in 1864 in Erfurt, Germany, and moved to Berlin to study law during the 1880s. In 1889 he completed a PhD thesis that focused on medieval trading companies. After some time as a law lecturer, Weber moved to Heidelberg. At some point, Weber underwent an acrimonious split from his father; when the elder Weber died in 1898, Weber suffered a nervous breakdown. But despite this setback, Weber was able to remain academically productive, publishing on a wide variety of subjects including law, religion, political economy, and political authority. During World War I Weber served as a hospital administrator and later a tariff official; after the war he unsuccessfully attempted a run for political office. His magnum opus , titled Economy and Society , remained unfinished before he died of pneumonia in 1920, just 56 years old. Weber's academic life was considerably more interesting than his personal life. Scholars have recognized several intellectual contributions of Weber's that continue to shape the social sciences. Weber created the concept of the “ideal type” as a methodological tool. An ideal type, according to Weber, was a theoretical construct that contained the essential elements of the subject under examination and would, ... log in or subscribe to read full text