Max Weber

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Max Weber

• The social Causes of the Decline of Ancient
  Civilization
• In, The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient
  Civilizations (1976)

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Brief introduction

• First published in an Encyclopedia under the
  title Agrarian Conditions in Antiquity in 1909
• Translated in English by R.I. Franck in 1976, who
  changed the title to The Agrarian Sociology of
  Ancient Civilizations because of the sociological
  nature of the book
• Webers essay on the Social causes of the
  decline of Ancient civilization is a classical
  illustration of socio-structural analysis

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Text Summary of the decline

• Careful analysis and interpretation of historical
  primary sources leads Weber to identify typical
  characteristics of the civilisation of Antiquity
  ? Oikos theory
• It is urban, coastal and based upon slavery
• Slave enterprises produce for the market after
  meeting their own needs the slave owner has the
  capacity to develop production based on division
  of labour
• The expansion of trade increased the growth of
  oikoi () based on unfree labour () (p. 394)

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Summary (continues)

• Unsustainable economic structure dependent on
  regular supply of slaves, which eventually
  stopped ? turning point in the development of
  ancient civilisation
• No slaves hunt, so slaves allowed to have
  property and families and children who become
  slaves ? slaves are now more like unfree serf
  servicing owners land
• It is thus impossible to maintain market
  production on the estates, which became more and
  more self-sufficient
• The later Empire has all the characteristics of
  a medieval manor. (p.403)

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Meaning of the text

• Weber interprets history
• Idea interpretation of action in terms of its
  subjective meaning should be united with and
  balanced by the interpretation of history
• Weber gives the world a subjective meaning
• The analysis of the decline of ancient
  civilisation is based on the limits slave
  production sets for capitalist development

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Meaning (continues)

• Tendency thinking Weber emphasizes agency over
  structure, idealism against materialism
• In fact, Weber goes beyond these dichotomies
  they are not mutually excluding categories
• Webers contribution to sociology multi-causal
  approach
• Subjective meaning of action within a cultural
  context of meaning

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Conclusion

• Webers historical sociology is not a grand
  theory of history unlike Marxs historical
  materialism
• Weber interprets history
• Multi-causal approach to analysis to correct the
  one-sidedness of materialist approach to social
  change
• Thank you

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Bibliography

• Max Weber, The Social Causes of the Decline of
  Ancient Civilization in, The Agrarian Sociology
  of Ancient Civilizations (NLB, 1976)
• Philip Abrams, Historical Sociology (Open Books,
  1982)
• Gerard Delanty Engin Isin, Handbook of
  Historical Sociology (London Sage, 2003)
• Jonathan Wiener, Max Webers Marxism Theory and
  Method in The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient
  Civilizations, Theory and Society, Vol. 11, No.
  3, pp. 389-401.