Die Heldenekstase der betrunkenen Elefanten: Das Natursubstrat bei Max Weber

摘要

When Max Weber remarks “that in old India the drunkenness (both of the warriors and of their elephants) before the battle“ has been a relic of “charismatic ecstasy” — does he make a joke or a statement of some significance? Presumably both. The essay, resulting from a comprehensive biography of Max Weber, argues that nature — in the sense of the natural sciences as well as of human nature — is the great unknown element in Weber’s work, without regard of which in many points the Weberian logic is not wholly obvious. Only by an appraisal of the nevertheless existing elements of naturalism, substantial parts of theWeberian argumentation may be reconstructed in a throughout logical way. Even more: Nature is the missing link between life and work.Weber’s attitude to his own nature — changing from time to time and deeply ambiguous for most of his life — is not merely of biographical interest, but throws a sharp light upon a similar ambiguity versus naturalism in the social sciences.