Max Weber by Radkau Joachim;

Author:Radkau, Joachim;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley

Part III

Salvation and Illumination

Although the whole world agrees that increased erotic tension not only subjectively fosters an affirmative, active and courageous approach to life but also objectively improves performance in numerous areas, it is not usual in a biography to devote a chapter to these erotic-sexual details and their personal foundations…. There is no reason to suppress the erotic sphere in our description of an individual. Every historian is able, without losing his composure, to discuss the importance of his hero’s attitudes to sexuality. Often this throws a clear light on the hero’s character and conduct of life.

Hans W. Gruhle, Geschichtsschreibung und Psychologie (1953), pp. 147, 149

No doubt it is true that Christianity is the religion of redemption; but the conception is a delicate one, and must never be taken out of the sphere of personal experience and inner reformation.

Adolf Harnack, What Is Christianity? (1901), p. 197

Quests for salvation which arise among privileged classes are generally characterized by a disposition towards an ‘illumination’ mysticism … which is associated with a distinctively intellectual qualification for salvation…. The salvation sought by the intellectual is always based on inner need…. The intellectual seeks in various ways, the casuistry of which extends into infinity, to endow his life with a pervasive meaning, and thus to find unity with himself, with his fellow men, and with the cosmos. It is the intellectual who conceives of the ‘world’ as a problem of meaning.

Max Weber, Economy and Society, p. 506

In 1909 Max Weber again felt capable of long-term commitments and took on the editing of a multi-volume handbook, the Grundriß der Sozialökonomik. At the December congress of the Verein für Sozialpolitik in Vienna, he pugnaciously argued against the idea of state direction of the economy. And in the following years he made a mark both in the Verein and in the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie (which he had helped to found) through his campaign against value-judgements in science. In the autumn of 1909 he fell in love with Else Jaffé, but by January 1910, when Else began an affair with Alfred Weber, their relationship was giving way to seven years of animosity. In the summer of 1912 Max Weber started a relationship with the pianist Mina Tobler, whom he had known since 1909. The relapses in his illness now ceased. In the springs of 1913 and 1914, he holidayed at Ascona and came into contact with lifestyle reformers who were living ‘close to nature’. There he often met Frieda Gross, the ex-wife of Else’s former lover Otto Gross, and gave her legal support in her battle for custody of her son. The years before 1914 witnessed other violent controversies, but also periods of unusual scientific productivity. Shortly before the war Weber began a study of Oriental religions: his book on Confucianism and Taoism was published in 1915, and an even more detailed work on Hinduism and Buddhism followed in 1916–17. When trusted colleagues at the Grundriß der Sozialökonomik deserted him, he began work on the voluminous manuscript

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.