1. The Sociological Import of a Metaphor: Tracking the Source of Max Weber's "Iron Cage".
- Author
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Tiryakian, Edward A.
- Subjects
- *
METAPHOR , *SOCIOLOGISTS , *ESSAYS , *SOCIOLOGY , *WORLD War I , *CAPITALISM - Abstract
In this article, the author suggests that wherein lies the source of what he ventures to assert as perhaps the most powerful metaphor used by a sociologist, one which has served as an apt summarizing of the topography of modern advanced society. Max Weber in this seminal essay has shown the dialectical relationship between the sacred and the profane to invoke the famous dichotomy features in that other great pre-World War I treatise in the sociology of religion. Weber has traced interconnections and interdependence between that powerful religious force, asceticism, and the rational economic conduct that typifies the development of modem capitalism. Weber's essay, examines stages of the transformation of Western civilization, with a critical quantum leap introduced by the Reformation, and particularly that aspect of it to which one owe the economic routinization of this-worldly asceticism in the form of the "calling" of one's occupation. It also presents information on secondary literature on Max Weber including books like Arthur Mitzman's "The Iron Cage: An Historical Interpretation of Max Weber," and Marianne Weber's "Max Weber: A Biography."
- Published
- 1981
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