Universal rationalization: Max Weber’s great narrative

Abstract

Among the “classic” diagnoses of modernity, the German scholar Max Weber is often ascribed the role of the creator of a “theory of rationalization.” If there had to be one keyword for which Max Weber is constantly mentioned today, it would probably be “rationalization.” This term denotes the vast context in the history of ideas which comprises Weber’s alleged “theory” of a universal, occidental “rationalization.” I myself do not really place this “theory,” which has been attributed to Max Weber, into the portfolio of sociological theories in the strict epistemological sense, but rather into the reservoir of “Great Narratives,” as Jean-François Lyotard has called them, “Les grands récits.” Max Weber has bestowed his great narrative of universal, occidental “rationalization” upon the self-understanding of humanity by sociology as a discipline during its roughly 150 years of history up to the present day. Whoever wants to refer to this Great Narrative by Max Weber cannot forbear to reconstruct it from his texts. At best, only the outlines of this Great Narrative can be indicated here.