Max Weber – Explaining Rationalisation

Max Weber was the man behind the theory of rationalization. Weber was born into a prosperous middle class family and studied jurisprudence at the Heidelberg institute in Germany. During his time at Heidelberg he was to become a member of the SDP, a role in which he was very much active through out his life.

Whilst at Heidelberg Weber would have debates over positivist economics and historical analysis, he would argue that there were no necessary patterns through out history, rather that the events and causes were unique.

He did acknowledge that there were regularities that could be explained by means of intellectual analysis and a moral understanding of these regularities which would involve distinct and separate modes of reasoning.

He noticed that due to the change in society (from organic to mechanic) that there was a decline in the myth, magic and to some extents religious values where as there was a rise in the use of rational calculation and secularism.

This change in...