Weber’s corpus is characterized by four tensions: the epistemological between subjective values and objective knowledge, the sociological between social rationalization and irrational myths, the political among conflicting values, and the tragic between human conscience and worldly affairs. I explore how three of Weber’s successors struggled with these tensions. Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer, in the early postwar writings, sought to resolve them, as did Carl Schmitt—although in diametrically opposed directions. Hans Morgenthau sought to keep them alive but did not refine them. They remain very relevant to contemporary international relations theory.
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