马克斯·韦伯的宗教经济伦理观初探

马克斯·韦伯一生思想发展的历程,就是试图用“宗教的经济伦理”这一独特的视角来寻找近代资本主义经济发展的内在合理性。其第一阶段主要是用历史的方法对历史上的经济问题进行探讨,第二阶段主要是从宗教的经济伦理学角度来理解社会经济发展与社会历史发展之间的关系。马克斯·韦伯的宗教经济伦理思想形成有种种原因。     

关于韦伯的科层制理论

科层制理论是马克斯.韦伯创立的。他对科层组织形式和发展的精辟分析,使科层制理论成为西方颇有影响的社会学理论之一。科层制是现代社会理性化的标志,韦伯对科层制推崇备至,认为它是迄今为止最高效、最合理的管理形式,具有非人格化的理性特征。同时,韦伯也洞察到了科层制的弊端。客观、全面地了解科层制的基本内涵、结构特征及它的优缺点,有助于我们科学地把握韦伯的科层制理论,对于分析我国政治体制存在的问题及加快民主化进程也具有十分重要的意义。     

韦伯清教与资本主义精神关系分析——从尼采谱系学的角度

韦伯认为,在加尔文教区资本主义自发产生出来,从现象的层面,加尔文教促使了资本主义的产生。对资本主义产生的源起,是否有比加尔文教更深的动力,韦伯没有对这一问题进行直接思考。如果将韦伯的加尔文教促使了资本主义的产生延伸到没有加尔文教就没有资本主义产生,韦伯也没有这样的立论。韦伯的本意在于,以加尔文教促使了资本主义产生的特例说明：从精神类型对自然的支配关系的角度去理解历史具有本真性。     

怨恨滋生与德性平等——马克斯·舍勒的德性观

怨恨原本是指人的一种心理情感。马克斯·舍勒认为,怨恨有一系列的心理结构,同时也与人生活在其中的社会的制度因素有着不可分割的关系。他从怨恨出发,分析了现代西方社会人们伦理价值观念变迁和形成的根源。舍勒的怨恨理论在启示我们思考今天的道德问题上,仍然具有重要的理论意义。     

马克思的时间观——《资本论》的存在意蕴解读

在《资本论》及相关文本中，马克思揭示了时间的本质及构成。在马克思看来，时间是人的积极存在，它不仅是人的生命的尺度，而且是人的发展的空间；人类社会发展的过程，就是节约劳动时间、追求自由时间的过程，是自由时间不断增长的过程。     

Which theory of moral evolution should social scientists choose?1

The issue of moral, social and political evolution is a basic chapter of the social sciences and has given birth to a great variety of theories. Beyond their diversity, these theories belong to two basic types. The first disregards, to a large extent, the role of ideas in evolution. Either it ignores their existence or it treats them as dependent variables: as being basically reactions of the social actors to changes in their environment. The second, by contrast, treats ideas as independent variables. It starts from the assumption that the explanation of moral, social and political evolution should take into consideration the capacity of human beings to propose and endorse interpretations of the world and to define programs of action. The first model is basically mechanical; the second is programmatic and rational, in the sense that it sees ideas as rationally selected. This second model has been convincingly illustrated by Durkheim and Weber. The processes they have identified can be discerned in the case of evolutionary phenomena characteristic of our time, such as the extension of rights in democratic societies.     

论近代西方资本主义兴起的精神动力--马克斯·韦伯《新教伦理与资本主义精神》解读

通过解读马克斯·韦伯的名著《新教伦理与资本主义精神》可以发现,新教伦理及其所孕育的资本主义精神与近代西方资本主义兴起三者之间存在着某种内在的逻辑关系,即资本主义精神是推动近代西方理性资本主义勃兴的重要力量,而这种精神在近代西方的形成,是新教伦理孕育的不期结果.     

Values-intuitive rational action: the dynamic relationship of instrumental rationality and values insights as a form of social action

This paper is concerned with the implications for conceptualizing social action which arise from a consideration of whether human beings are capable of knowing ultimate (universal, unconditionally valid) values. This issue is framed within the view that the validity of our understanding of social action is inextricably linked with the validity of our conception of humankind: the scope and variety of social action has potentialities and limitations that are inscribed by the nature of human beings qua human beings. The paper suggests an enlargement, through the addition of a proposed conceptual tool, of the framework that comprises Weber's typology of social action. It argues that the common human properties of the person in whom social action is embedded should not arbitrarily exclude questions of the genesis of values. An analytical argument is put forward through an examination of the extent to which a faculty for values insights is implicated in Weber's concept of charisma and ethical analysis of political leadership. The notion of values-intuitive rational action is then outlined and discussed. The analytical argument is supported by theorizing from developmental psychology and examples of such action are given. Methodological difficulties in investigating the latter and the interrelationship of such action with institutional and social contexts are briefly discussed.     

Science against modernism: the relevance of the social theory of Michael Polanyi

Science, as an institution, is widely taken by sociologists to exemplify the modern tendency towards vesting trust and authority in impersonal offices and procedures, rather than in embodied human individuals. Such views of science face an important challenge in the social philosophy of Michael Polanyi. His work provides important insights into the continuing role of embodied personal authority and tradition in science and, hence, in late modernity. I explicate Polanyi's relevance for social theory, through a comparison with Weber's essay 'Science as a Vocation'. An understanding of the personal dimensions of trust and authority in science suggests practical limits to the position of Giddens on the disembedding of social relations and on the scepticism and reflexivity of modernity.