Title: Romance and reason : ontological and social sources of alienation in the writings of Max Weber /
Authors: Koch, Andrew M., 1953-
Publisher: Lexington Books,
Year: 2006
Subjects: Weber, Max, Criticism and interpretation.; Alienation (Social psychology); Alienation (Philosophy); Social epistemology.; Ontology Social aspects.; Rationalism.
Abstract: "In this new biography, Andrew M. Koch argues that Weber's understanding of the Enlightenment, in all its epistemological and ontological structures, conveys the Enlightenment itself as an alienating worldview. As a result, Koch contends, the full depth of Weber's body of work has yet to be excavated and studied. Romance and Reason is an analysis of the genesis of the concept of alienation and, in an imaginative and necessary turn, Koch works to re-create the context in which Weber understood alienation in both the intellectual and lived sense.
Contents: Introduction -- Max Weber and alienation -- The historical roots of Weber's view of alienation -- Max Weber's methodology : the limits of human knowledge -- Max Weber's ontology : the limits of the individual -- Rationality and the roots of social alienation -- Rationality and capitalism -- Bureaucracy and formal rationality -- Conclusions regarding Weber, alienation, and human subjectivity.