What Weber got wrong

Professor Campbell will undertake a forensic analysis of Max Weber’s account of the subject-matter of sociology and the manner in which it should be studied. This important section of his writing is to be found in Chapter 1 of Volume One of Economy and Society (essentially the first 24 pages).

Professor Campbell will demonstrate that Weber’s formulation is deeply problematic and consequently effectively impossible to implement. This is essentially due to a lack of clarity concerning the definitions of `action’, the `unit act’, and `motive’. These problems can, however, be remedied if Weber’s theory of action is underpinned by a theory of agency.

There will be plenty of time during the seminar for discussion of his analysis.

Colin Campbell is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of York, where he has been a member of the Sociology Department since 1965. He is the author of a dozen books and over one hundred articles dealing with issues in the sociology of religion, consumerism, cultural change, and sociological theory.

He is probably best-known as the author of The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism (1987, 2018), a `modern classic’ which has been translated into half a dozen languages. His other major publications include Toward A Sociology of Irreligion (1971, 2013), The Myth of Social Action (1996), The Easternization of the West (2007) Has Sociology Progressed? Reflections of an Accidental Academic (2019) and Consumption and Consumer Society: The Craft Consumer and Other Essays (2021). His latest publication is In Search of the Real Max Weber: A Dynamic Interpretive Approach to Action and Agency (2025).

This event is open to UoY staff.

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