Max Weber

Maximilian Carl Emil Weber was born on 21 April 1864 in Erfurt, Province of Saxony, Kingdom of Prussia

By 14 June 1920, the cold had turned into influenza and he died of pneumonia in Munich.

the study of social action through interpretive means or verstehen (to understand) needed to be based upon understanding the subjective meaning and purpose that individuals attached to their actions.

Weber made a variety of other contributions to economic sociology, political sociology, and the sociology of religion.

The books' three main themes were: religious ideas' effect on economic activities, the relationship between social stratification and religious ideas, and the distinguishable characteristics of Western civilisation.

Instead, he made the important decision to work on a large-scale comparative sociology of world religions that would examine the social foundations of religious beliefs and practices as well as the inner-worldly repercussions of religious doctrine.

For example, in formulating the protestant ethic thesis (often read as an alternative to Marxist accounts of the rise of capitalism ), Weber was explicitly building upon earlier theories of capitalism and of money propounded by Werner Sombart and Georg Simmel.

And for the rule of law to endure, it is essential that there be a balance of the conflicting imperatives of formal and substantive legal rationality.

Moreover, bureaucratic procedures (following the rules) sometimes become more important than the goals they are designed to achieve, an irrational result.

As he defined social classes, they too belonged in the category of groups based on material interests, since the concept of social class designated for him the “market situation” common to a group of people, who thereby have a broadly similar chance to dispose of goods or skills for the sake of income.