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- Title
WEBER, DARWINISM AND SOCIOCULTURAL EVOLUTION: A REPLY TO HAINES.
- Authors
Langton, John
- Abstract
This article discusses a detailed analysis of sociologist Max Weber's work on sociology. Weber's actual relationship to evolutionalism in general and the Darwinian model of systematic adaptation in particular remains, of course, open to dispute. Weber's work can be viewed as a gigantic effort to refute the basic assumptions of every kind of evolutionism'. Weber provides a multidimensional macrosociological theory for the historical analysis of basic social configurations and their variants in evolutionary and comparative perspective. The biological selection of individuals refers to the physical survival and differential reproductive success of particular people and must be explained by natural and sexual factors. Weber concludes that there are essentially three reasons for the selection of vocational asceticism in the centuries leading up to the industrial revolution: the psychological 'premia' created by acceptance of Calvinistic doctrines; the social 'premia' created by the emergence of ascetic sects and finally, 'the economic struggle for existence'.
- Subjects
WEBER, Max, 1864-1920; MACROSOCIOLOGY; SOCIOLOGICAL research; SOCIAL sciences; CALVINISTIC Methodists; SOCIAL structure; SOCIAL history; POLITICAL attitudes
- Publication
Sociology, 1984, Vol 18, Issue 3, p413
- ISSN
0038-0385
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/0038038584018003013