According to this interp of Weber, individuation would not be preferred;
I
would like to suggest that Weber would have preferred individuation as
compared to the groupish,
unassertive, and demotivated "specialists" found in bureaucracies today.
----
In the Protestant Ethic, Weber castigates modern society, it is true,
because individuals feel compelled to work and seek material comforts
without the spiritual checks inherent to the early Protestant
experience. They are mere pleasure-seekers, whose function is socially
reactionary; Kings have always protected them because their activity
counters the moralism on which the opposition (he mentions the labor
union) depends. Your concept of individuation, as you have used it in
conjunction with what asserts to be an empirical fact, will, when
pressed to its outermost boundaries, collapse. Is it individuation to
be the slave of a patriarchal God (or a Kaiser, as Weber was to find out
after WWI)? Any more than one's own lusts? Your stereotype of the
contemporary bureaucracy bears much in common with Weber's
"traditionalist," or Catholic in Protestant Ethic, less with the facts
of the present day (your language suggests to me that you'd rather have
the Prussian army delivering your mail or policing your streets) or the
constitutional structure of the United States and its divergence from
the monarchic system. Recall, of course, that Weber postwar strove to
give rhetorical reasons why one should, in spite of modernist
disillusionment, see science and politics as spiritually valid; the
appeals are subjective, while corresponding to a perceived objective
need in Weimar (peaceful professions vs. war machine). It is a banality
in sociology departments that Weber was an individualist, disregarding
the checks he saw as necessary; as it stands your definition stinks of
Ayn Rand.
Yours,
Matt
>From owner-foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mon Jan 11 16:38:13 1999
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>Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 19:03:19 EST
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>In a message dated 1/11/99 3:34:22 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>mthrond@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
>
>> Society was
>> fluid and tolerant, but bereft of affective bonds and deep emotional
>> comforts (Specialists without spirit, said Weber).
>
>According to this interp of Weber, individuation would not be
preferred; I
>would like to suggest that Weber would have preferred individuation as
>compared to the groupish,
>unassertive, and demotivated "specialists" found in bureaucracies
today.
>
>Vunch
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
I
would like to suggest that Weber would have preferred individuation as
compared to the groupish,
unassertive, and demotivated "specialists" found in bureaucracies today.
----
In the Protestant Ethic, Weber castigates modern society, it is true,
because individuals feel compelled to work and seek material comforts
without the spiritual checks inherent to the early Protestant
experience. They are mere pleasure-seekers, whose function is socially
reactionary; Kings have always protected them because their activity
counters the moralism on which the opposition (he mentions the labor
union) depends. Your concept of individuation, as you have used it in
conjunction with what asserts to be an empirical fact, will, when
pressed to its outermost boundaries, collapse. Is it individuation to
be the slave of a patriarchal God (or a Kaiser, as Weber was to find out
after WWI)? Any more than one's own lusts? Your stereotype of the
contemporary bureaucracy bears much in common with Weber's
"traditionalist," or Catholic in Protestant Ethic, less with the facts
of the present day (your language suggests to me that you'd rather have
the Prussian army delivering your mail or policing your streets) or the
constitutional structure of the United States and its divergence from
the monarchic system. Recall, of course, that Weber postwar strove to
give rhetorical reasons why one should, in spite of modernist
disillusionment, see science and politics as spiritually valid; the
appeals are subjective, while corresponding to a perceived objective
need in Weimar (peaceful professions vs. war machine). It is a banality
in sociology departments that Weber was an individualist, disregarding
the checks he saw as necessary; as it stands your definition stinks of
Ayn Rand.
Yours,
Matt
>From owner-foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mon Jan 11 16:38:13 1999
>Received: (from domo@localhost) by lists.village.virginia.edu
(8.8.5/8.6.6) id TAA55417 for foucault-outgoing; Mon, 11 Jan 1999
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<foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Mon, 11 Jan 1999 19:07:38 -0500
>From: Vunch@xxxxxxx
>Received: from Vunch@xxxxxxx
> by imo29.mx.aol.com (IMOv18.1) id VYVSa01222
> for <foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Mon, 11 Jan 1999 19:03:19
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>Message-ID: <2303f544.369a9147@xxxxxxx>
>Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 19:03:19 EST
>To: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Subject: Re: commentary is a minstral show
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
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>
>In a message dated 1/11/99 3:34:22 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>mthrond@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
>
>> Society was
>> fluid and tolerant, but bereft of affective bonds and deep emotional
>> comforts (Specialists without spirit, said Weber).
>
>According to this interp of Weber, individuation would not be
preferred; I
>would like to suggest that Weber would have preferred individuation as
>compared to the groupish,
>unassertive, and demotivated "specialists" found in bureaucracies
today.
>
>Vunch
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com