About the author
German sociologist and political economist (1864–1920), one of the founding figures of modern social science alongside Marx and Durkheim. Weber's work spans the sociology of religion, the methodology of the human sciences, and the comparative study of political authority. In Politics as a Vocation (1919), delivered as a lecture to students in Munich at the end of the First World War, he distinguished the ethics of conviction — acting on moral principle regardless of consequences — from the ethics of responsibility — accepting political accountability for outcomes. He died the following year from Spanish flu.
Synopsis
An essay about political leadership, responsibility, violence, and the state’s claim to legitimate force.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted workWeber defines the modern state by its claim to the monopoly of legitimate physical force.
This is one of the most important definitions of the modern state and its relation to violence.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with idealist, religious, or pacifist political ethics.
Reading note
Short, powerful, and useful for thinking about political responsibility.
Best paired with
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan.