ABSTRACT

A comprehensive account of Max Weber's intellectual setting still needs to be written. This chapter on Weber and Jacob Burckhardt is best read as a contribution to our understanding of that setting, as Weber confronted it. The two men were alike in important respects, despite equally notable differences. Critics of the German historical school, they continued its tradition in their own ways. Opponents of the Hegelian philosophy of history, they developed views of social change indebted to it. Deeply influenced by the anti-rationalist tradition of their day, they sought to combine its insights with an affirmation of the values of Western civilization. Both Weber and Burckhardt believed that in human affairs reason plays only a small part, while man’s struggle for power greatly affects the course of events. Their writings are compared with regard to these themes.