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Studies
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[MWS 7.1 (2007) 63-87]
ISSN 1470-8078
Heroic Love:
The Ethic of Brotherliness in Max Weber's 'Vocation' Lectures
Michael Symonds
Jason Pudsey
Abstract
This paper examines the concept of brotherly love as utilized by Max Weber in his
sociology of religion and, especially, in his famous 'vocational' speeches. It argues
that a central concern of Weber in this body of work was the fate of such brotherly
love within the history of Western religious and societal rationalization. It also
suggests that Weber implicitly advocates such an ethic in his vocation lectures as
a means of living a life sensitive to human suffering in the face of the impersonal
structures of Modernity.
Introduction
Max Weber Studies 2007, Department of Applied Social Sciences, London Metropolitan
University, Old Castle Street, London El 7NT, UK.
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64 Max Weber Studies
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Symonds and Pudsey Heroic Love 65
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66 Max Weber Studies
5. One major exception to the trend of not dealing with Weber's arguments
against Nietzsche on resentment is B. Turner (1996). Turner claims that although Weber
was critical of, and wanted to limit, the resentment thesis, WebeTs arguments in A],
and elsewhere, have some correlation with Nietzsche, especially in agreeing on differ
ent types of theodicies and goodness. Turner also believes that Weber's own personal
theodicy was one of the (very Nietzschean) isolated prophet of doom (1996:158-65).
This may be correct to a degree, but, in our view, it tips the balance far too much in
favour of Nietzsche and does not consider the more obvious rejection of the resent
ment thesis, especially when the dimension of brotherliness is included. However, it is
undoubtedly correct that Weber did maintain the Nietzschean personality idealbut
alongside and in tension with brotherliness, as we will argue below.
6. Some brief explanation of Judaism and the resentment thesis can be found
in IEEWR and ES, but it is in A] that Weber gives a highly detailed account of the
development of Judaic beliefs. Resentment and revenge are certainly there as part of
the explanation (e.g. AJ: 367, 404), but only amongst a large number of other deter
minants, including climate, civic culture and the internal logics of Judaic theology.
And when resentment and its morality are discussed by Weber, their origins are
not understood by him in the same manner as Nietzsche (see A]: 365-77 on how
the theodicy of Deutero-Isaiah developed suffering, humility and the redeemer as
central to Judaism). Nietzsche is not mentioned by name in A], but this absence
and the relatively minor role resentment plays in this work should in themselves
be regarded as constituting a sort of reply to Nietzsche's claims. It should also be
remembered that the explicit dealing with Nietzsche's thesis comes in the general
introduction (IEEWR) to the religious studies (Gesammelte Aufstze zur Religionssozi
ologie, first published in 1920) of which A J is a part.
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Symonds and Pudsey Heroic Love 67
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68 Max Weber Studies
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Symonds and Pudsey Heroic Love 69
Brotherly love, since it may only be practised for the Glory of God
and not in the service of the flesh, is expressed in the first place in
the fulfilment of the daily tasks given by the lex naturae; and in the
process this fulfilment assumes a peculiarly objective and impersonal
character, that of service in the interest of the rational organization of
our social environment. For the wonderfully purposeful organization
and arrangement of this cosmos is, according both to the revelation
of the Bible and to natural intuition, evidently designed by God to
serve the utility of the human race. This makes labour in the service of
impersonal social usefulness appear to promote the glory of God and
hence to be willed by Him (PE: 108-109).
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70 Max Weber Studies
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Symonds and Pudsey Heroic Love 71
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72 Max Weber Studies
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Symonds and Pudsey Heroic Love 73
Politics as a Vocation
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74 Max Weber Studies
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Symonds and Pudsey Heroic Love 75
15. Of course, there are personal relationships that are ethical and loving but
are not examples of brotherliness. Weber mentions the case of married life, where, if
there is a great deal of luck, the couple can grow old together in love (IR: 350). This
might be labelled the 'private', but this aside in IR does not mention brotherliness
and does not fit into his previous descriptions of the nature of brotherly love.
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76 Max Weber Studies
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Symonds and Pudsey Heroic Love 77
of the erotic to the power and money of politics and the economy;
and it is endangered by its own logic of universality and impersonal
ity. Further, it has only historically existed with any social strength in
the pre-modern world, and only then in modes of tense compromise.
Of course, if one has chosen the religious, Christian path, this ethic
might be maintained with some, if small, degree of ease. But if the
Christian worldview is stripped away and there is no 'sacrifice of
the intellect', then the task of following brotherliness, without its
religious legitimation, becomes very hard indeed. The whole nature
of Modernity, as well as internal forces of rationalization, stand
against it.
'Cultivating plain brotherliness in personal relations' means trying
to maintain this traditional Christian ethic outside religion. To face
squarely 'the polar night of icy darkness and hardness' (PV: 128),
and still prove your vocational and ethical worth, is indeed heroic. It
is only for the few, and it takes some considerable understanding of
the forces ranged against the ongoing existence of brotherliness.
Science as a Vocation
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78 Max Weber Studies
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Symonds arid Pudsey Heroic Love 79
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80 Max Weber Studies
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Symonds and Pudsey Heroic Love 81
idea that there can be rational arguments for the advocacy of such
a value position in an intellectual setting (e.g. SV: 147). The very
last line of SV, 'This, however, is plain and simple, if each finds and
obeys the demon who holds the fibers of his very life' (SV: 156)20 is
usually taken to indicate an individualist, decisionist view that does
not easily square with Weber specifying what the moral content of
the human should be. But this is what he seems to have done, if
somewhat obliquely.
Although primarily concentrating on his empirical works in
this paper, two reported, personal comments might also aid in our
understanding the importance of the Christian tradition for Weber.
In Hans Staudinger's memoirs, Weber was asked the question 'What
is your supreme value?' Weber replied that he does not have one
and saw how he lived thus:
Imagine that hanging from the ceiling of my study there are violins,
pipes, and drums, clarinets and harps. Now this instrument plays,
now that. The violin plays, that is my religious value. Then I hear
harps and clarinets and I sense my artistic value. Then it is the turn of
the trumpets and that is my value of freedom. With the sound of pipes
and drums I feel the value of the fatherland. The trombone stirs the
values of community, solidarity. There are sometimes dissonances...
(Hennis 1988:166).
Yet how does such an interpretation sit with the dominant secondary
accounts of Weber's views on morality? Although there are numer
ous secondary studies which do try to provide an insight into Weber's
20. 'Die aber ist schlicht und einfach, wenn jeder den Dmon findet und ihm
gehorcht, der seines Lebens Fden hlt' (WB: 111).
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82 Max Weber Studies
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Symonds and Pudsey Heroic Love 83
Further, Hennis adds the ad hominem point that despite Weber's deeply imbued
sense of Christian dignity he was a great hater full of heartfelt contempt (1988:
177). All these points add up to the ignoring or, in fact, denial of a possible place
for brotherliness in the life-conduct appropriate for modernity. From our position,
it is the placing of Weber in the intellectual debate over liberalism versus Nietzsche
that leads such interpretation, undoubtedly valuable in many ways, away from
some of Weber's ethical understanding.
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84 Max Weber Studies
Conclusion
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Symonds and Pudsey Heroic Love 85
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