Abstract
This article investigates the status assigned to Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism as a case study on the development of the concept of theory in twentieth century sociology. I trace this development in the interplay between scholars in the United States and Germany and distinguish three waves of meaning given to the text. The transitions between these phases were brought about by an initial process of mystification of the text in the 1930s and a dynamic of de- and re-mystification beginning in the 1980s. Following this process of (re)interpretation over time, I show that at the beginning of the century the work was perceived as an empirical inquiry, while at the end of the century it was treated as pure theory. Based on the example of the peculiarities of the Weberian expert communities in the United States and Germany, I analyze how the invention of a concept of theory as independent from empirical evidence helped to stabilize the value of scholarly expertise on Weber in the face of otherwise declining resonance of the text. The analysis of this paradigmatic case adds to our understanding of the development, uses, and meaning of theory in contemporary sociology.
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Notes
Detailed accounts of the history of the Society are provided by Boese (1939), Lindenlaub (1967), and Schäfer (1971). On the relation of the Society to other research associations see Gorges (1986a, 1986b). The so far most encompassing overview of the history of empirical social research in Germany has been written by Kern (1982). Schad (1972) provides an overview of the Weimar period.
The statement is based on a full text search for the terms “theory” and “theoretical” in the digitalized version of Weber’s writings available on www.zeno.org.
The only other German book up to that time to carry the term “sociological theory” in the title was likewise a translation, Die Soziologischen Theorien by Fausto Squillace (1911). Like Sorokin, Squillace, who was a professor at the Universite Nouvelle Bruessles, divided sociology into different schools or traditions, each of which was considered to be transnational. One of these traditions was the “statistical and demographic perspective in sociology” (Squillace 1911, pp. 312–317). Quantitative empirical research was thus subsumed under the label of sociological theory. Weber was not discussed in this volume.
Von Wiese’s book remained in print until its ninth edition in 1971, albeit without a larger impact on the way the history of sociology is commonly narrated. One of the histories of sociology not to conflate different categories in comparing German and American sociology is Hardin (1977). This organizational analysis looks at journals, research centers, and professional associations instead of the work of classical theorists.
An updated version of such a quantitative analysis was provided by Turner and Turner (1990).
As Wittebur (1991) has calculated, of the 152 sociologists in the country who by 1933 had a Habilitation, i.e., the second doctoral degree that qualified for a position as a tenured professor, 63 emigrated, with 40 of those going to the United States. That is, slightly more than 25% of all sociologists in the country who had a habilitation transferred to the United States. It was as close as it could be to an academic mass migration. For a biographical account of these scholars and their impact on American sociology see in particular Coser (1984). Steinmetz (2010) has written on the failure of these scholars to transfer a particular style of German sociology to America.
A substantial number of sociologists had left the country since Hitler came to power in 1933, but this did not mean that sociology came to a standstill. The very opposite was the case. Based on professional directories and the analysis of sociological writings, Rammstedt (1986) has shown that neither 1933 nor 1945 was a turning point in the development of sociology in Germany. The number of self-designated sociologists was initially even on the rise rather than in decline. The highest count of sociologists in the four issues of the Kürschner-sche Gelehrten-Kalender (the German equivalent of the Marquis Who’s Who) published between 1931 and 1950 was achieved in 1935, that is, after the first wave of emigration had already taken place (Rammstedt 1986, p. 97).
Included in this selection are only authors who made an explicit statement on the status of the Protestant Ethic as being either theoretical or empirical. The full range of publications on Weber during the Third Reich is much wider. For a comprehensive account see in particular Klingemann (1996). On sociology during the Third Reich see also Maus (1956, 1959, 1962), Klingemann (2009) and Steinmetz (2009). For a discussion of American sociology during the period see Abbott and Sparrow (2007), Camic (2007), and Steinmetz (2007).
Other German immigrants at the University of Chicago after 1933 who were interested in Weber, but not involved in translating his writings, were Joachim Wach, Melchior Palyi, and Alexander von Schelting.
The report was a confidential document and not known to the participants of the Heidelberg conference. It was first published by Schröders (2002).
An early example is an article by Cohen (1980) in which he argued that rational capitalism was born and developed in pre-Reformation Italy. Capitalist rationality advanced under both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, and the religious factor had thus little effect on its early development. See also Cohen (2002) for an extensive discussion of the empirical validity of the Protestant Ethic.
For an overview of this literature, see also Heintz (2004).
The English book containing this passage is put together from three different German books by Schluchter. The original quote is to be found in the first volume of Religion und Lebensführung (Schluchter 1988, p. 15).
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Bargheer, S. The invention of theory: A transnational case study of the changing status of Max Weber’s Protestant ethic thesis. Theor Soc 46, 497–541 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-017-9303-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-017-9303-5