`The Will to Act': An Analysis of Max Weber's Conceptualisation of Social Action and Political Ethics in the Light of Goethe's Fiction

Abstract

Max Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Politics as a Vocation are interpreted in light of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Wilhelm Meister and Faust. The significance of Goethe's faith in human striving, the renunciation of wholly contemplative aspirations, and the subsequent undertaking of a specialised vocation are discussed. Following this, the way in which these themes influenced substantive dimensions of Weber's sociology is developed. This explication contends that Goethe's vision of active asceticism, the motivational power of conviction, and a transcendent deed which contributes to the vitality of future generations, influenced Weber's understanding of meaningful and responsible social and political action.

Elective Affinities of the Protestant Ethic: Weber and the Chemistry of Capitalism

“…As we know from Marianne Weber's biography of her husband, Weber read the entire 40 volumes of Goethe's collected works while he was still in his Tertia (1988:47–48), and in his adult life regularly read and reread Goethe for pleasure. In his scholarly work, Weber regularly quotes Goethe, and there is a growing literature on the important role of Goethe in Weber's thinking, one that is comparable with that of Nietzsche, Kant, and Marx (Kent 1983; Green 1988; Albrow 1990; Baehr 2001; Goldman 1992; Kemple 2001; Sahni 2001; Scaff 1991; Wilding 2007). As in many of his other essays, in the Protestant ethic essays, Weber quotes Goethe several times.…”