The Cambridge Companion to Weber (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) [Paperback]

Stephen Turner (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 2000 | ISBN-10: 052156753X | ISBN-13: 978-0521567534

Max Weber is indubitably one of the very greatest figures in the history of the social sciences, the source of seminal concepts such as "the Protestant Ethic" and "modernity." Prominent as a founding father of sociology, Weber has been a major influence in the study of ancient history, religion, economics, law and cultural studies. In this Cambridge Companion a very distinguished international team of contributors introduces Weber's thought, examines some of the major controversies that have erupted, and shows how the intellectual issues Weber raised have developed since he wrote.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Stephen Turner's edited collection brings together original contributions from a dozen of the world's leading Weber scholars. It is a triumph to collect essays from scholars scattered around the globe. As ever, Cambridge University Press has produced a volume to admirable standards, with notes at the bottom of each page, not a single typographical mistake, and high-quality printing. Articles in English by the likes of Wilfried Nippel, Wolfgang Schluchter and Peter Lassman are to be treasured, and I have no hesitation in saying that the book should have a place in all self-respecting university libraries." Frank Webster, Times Higher Education Supplement

"...very high quality." Choice

Book Description

Max Weber is indubitably one of the very greatest figures in the history of the social sciences, the source of seminal concepts like 'the Protestant Ethic' and 'modernity'. Prominent as a founding father of sociology, Weber has been a major influence in the study of ancient history, religion, economics, law and cultural studies. In this Cambridge Companion a very distinguished international team of contributors introduces Weber's thought, examines some of the major controversies that have erupted, and shows how the intellectual issues Weber raised have developed since he wrote.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (April 13, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052156753X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521567534
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,122,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

If you have stumbled on to this page, you are probably wondering what all these books are doing together, and how anyone would have an "also bought" list that runs, depending on the day, from Kant to Elster and Daston to Ritzer. They all do belong here. The connecting thread is this: I have always been drawn to basic questions about what sort of knowledge of the social world and history is possible, and by the implications of these questions.

I started out asking philosophical and methodological questions about social science and social and political theory. Now I mostly ask social theory questions about philosophy. Most of this is informed by the history of these subjects. Knowing something about the history of these questions is a good thing, but it is also a curse. It is difficult to read the latest word on, for example, philosophical problems with causal modeling, without the grim recognition that the author has unknowingly recycled solutions that were available a century ago.

These basic methodological topics may seem to be a bit of a bore. Weber, on which I have spent much of my ink, may seem like a distant and dusty figure. But the topics, and Weber's writing in particular, open onto a vast variety of subjects and literatures, and provide a special, privileged access to them. And despite the forbidding titles, the books (and my other writings) are full of the human presence of great and not so great thinkers.