Interests and Ideas. Max Weber’s Allocation Problem

Abstract

Max Weber is rightly considered both a founder and champion of cultural sociology. His body of work is pervaded with the effort to analyze the intertwining of interests and ideas. In this chapter, Weber’s Protestant Ethic-study is used for explaining the importance of the diffusion of ideas for institutionalization processes. It is not sufficient to identify and analytically isolate these ideas, but it is essential to detect the ideas’ cognitive structure and their relevance for social action. From this perspective, the task of cultural sociology is to focus on the context that produces ideas with relevance for institutionalization processes and to analyze the interdependencies between different ideas. Interests and ideas do not directly oppose each other. Ideas are interest-based; they have to be able to “produce” something. Conversely, interests are idea-based; they are focused on goals and make use of legitimate means. Interests and ideas thereby describe two analytical perspectives. If one of the two is chosen, the other is not necessarily negated.

Translated from German with permission from Springer. Original Publication: Lepsius MR (1990) Interessen und Ideen. Die Zurechnungsproblematik bei Max Weber. In: Lepsius MR, Interessen, Ideen und Institutionen. Opladen, Westdeutscher Verlag, pp. 31–43. Translated by Ryan DeLaney, edited by Claus Wendt, University of Siegen/Germany, wendt@soziologie.uni-siegen.de.