Die Entzauberung der Welt

Max Weber spoke of the disenchantment of the world as a long lasting process, which had penetrated occidental culture. Its result was the notion that one could master life by way of calculation, that there are »no mysterious incalculable forces that come into play.« This notion went together with an increasing autonomy of spheres of action, which produced internal and external tensions and called for an ongoing, albeit precarious tension management on the individual as well as on the institutional level. In the six essays gathered in this book these problems will be addressed. They focus on Weber's sociology of religion, economic sociology and sociology of domination, especially his sociology of democracy. They include also an analysis of the »Basic Sociological Terms«, with which Weber founded his interpretive sociology methodically and conceptually.
In this collection, Wolfgang Schluchter continues his attempt to interpret and explicate Weber's work and to demonstrate its topicality. They should be read together with the author's Action, Order and Culture as well as Foundations of Sociology, two books which were also published by Mohr Siebeck.