A Sociology of the Demonic?

Abstract

This article examines some aspects of the neglected work of Alfred Weber, younger brother of the vastly better appreciated Max Weber. Working under conditions of `inner exile' in Nazi Germany, Alfred Weber composed a series of writings dating from the years of the Second World War on conceptions of transcendence in Western civilization and their relevance to a sociological revaluation of the time-honoured claims of Judaeo-Christian monotheism. These writings compare closely with Karl Jaspers's existentialist conception of transcendence and `limit-experience' from the same period and also particularly with the later philosophical writings of Georg Simmel on the concept of life and the meaning of absolute value orientations from the standpoint of historical immanence. This distinctive conception of `immanent transcendence' — first named as such by Simmel and later reaffirmed by Alfred Weber — is explored in this article in relation to a range of questions about the normative import of theological figures of thought and language for the formation of modern social-scientific thinking and reasoning. The claim is defended that Alfred Weber's oeuvre should remain of interest to contemporary social theorists, despite its many weaknesses and frequent moments of obscurity.