Book Description

In the last decade an increasing amount of Anglo-American scholarship has been devoted to the centrality of politics within Max Weber's work. There has been a radical shift away from the Parsonian view that Weber was a mainstream sociologist. While sympathetic to these approaches, Charles Turner argues that none of them have adequately dealt with Weber's concept of the political. In particular, Turner argues that in order to demonstrate the importance of Weber's politics other scholars have read him as neo-Aristotelian, playing down the role of neo-Kantian value philosophy. Turner argues that while Weber's work certainly bears comparison with themes specific to the neo-Aristotelian critique of modernity, an appreciation of the analytical centrality of politics is quite consistent with his appeal to the neo-Kantian philosophy of his own day. The key to this is an understanding of what Weber means by the tragedy of "culture."

One of the most distinctive features of Modernity and Politics in the Work of Max Weber is that it encourages Weber specialists to situate themselves in a wider range of debates about "modernity."

About the Author

Charles Turner is Tutor and Supervisor in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge.