Weber's Theory Of Value Pluralism

Max Weber is one of the important western sociologists in eighteenth and nineteenth century. Weber had written lots of books involving the history of economic, the sociology of religion, the social policy and so on. This thesis focuses on Weber’s value theory, especially, his theory of multiple value conflicts of modern human society. This thesis has eight chapters. The first chapter is the general introduction of this thesis. The second chapter is about Weber’s methodology, I will introduce Weber’s key concept of ideatype and elective affinity, which are the premise to comprehend Weber’s value theory. From the third chapter to the fifth chapter, I tease Weber’s opinion to the relationship between the protestant ethic and the modern order of capitalism, and then I will analyze Weber’s argumentation of his theory of multiple value conflicts. Weber claims that the conditions of multiple value conflicts is objective, but he still stands on the position of liberalism and suggests his path to ease the conflicts. In the seventh chapter, we will see Leo Strauss criticizes Weber’s theory, he thinks Weber’s argumentation of his theory of multiple value conflicts is not sufficient, and Weber actually is a nihilist. The eighth chapter is my conclusion.