Max Weber and Karl Marx

by Karl Löwith

English, German (translation)

Genres: Sociology, Philosophy, History, Social Science, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

Karl Löwith was a German philosopher, a student of Heidegger. Löwith was one of the most prolific German philosophers of the twentieth century; the bibliography of his works comprising more than 300 titles.
Löwith was born in Munich. Though he was himself Protestant, his family was of Jewish descent and he therefore had to emigrate Germany in 1934 because of the National Socialist regime. He went to Italy and in 1936 he went to Japan. But because of the alliance between the Third Reich and Japan he had to leave Japan in 1941 and went to the USA. From 1941 to 1952, he taught at the Hartford Theological Seminary and the New School for Social Research. In 1952 he returned to Germany to teach as Professor of Philosophy at Heidelberg, where he died.

He is probably most known for his two books From Hegel to Nietzsche, which describes the decline of German classical philosophy, and Meaning in History, which discusses the problematic relationship between theology and history. Löwith's argument in Meaning in History is that the western view of history is confused by the relationship between Christian faith and the modern view, which is neither Christian nor pagan. Löwith describes this relationship through famous western philosophers and historians, including Burckhardt, Marx, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Voltaire, Vico, Bossuet, Augustine and Orosius. The modern historical consciousness is, according to Löwith, derived from Christianity. But, Christians are not a historical people, as their view of the world is based on faith. This explains the tendency in history (and philosophy) to an eschatological view of human progress.

Reviews

[Hamza El]

كتاب جميل جدا من صنف كتب فلسفة التاريخ التي تتحدث عن فكر ماكس فيبر الذي ينتمي إلى البرجوازية ويحاول تفسير التاريخ من خلال مفهوم العقلنة و نجد في كفة آخرى كارل ماركس الذي يتحدث عن استيلاب ذات من خلال نقده إلى هيجل وفكرة روح مطلق و حديث عن مادية التاريخية تم عن مقارنة بين المادية التاريخية وأنه لا يوجد خلاف بينها وبين علم الاجتماع وحديث عن نقد ماكس فيبر للمادية التاريخية من خلال حديثه عن علم الاجتماع الديني رغم أن كلا مفكرين اتخد من الرأسمالية موضوع للبحث إلى أنهم وصلوا إلى نتائج مختلفة كل من موقعه وثقافة كتاب قيم يستحق القراءة وخصوصا أن باحث متخصص في فلسفة الألمانية نيتشه وهيدغر نمودجا . يستحق القراءة .

[Roberto Yoed]

While it is a good synthesis of Weber's thought, the Marxist theory explaination, based entirely on the concept of alienation (ignoring class struggle, ideology, historic materialism, dialectics and all Das Kapital) is plain vulgar.

If you read this book with the mindset that it tries to prove Weber is an idealistic author, the rating automatically changes to 4 stars.

[Sergio Corchete]

Sería interesante ver en qué medida la filosofía de la historia de Lowith se plasma en la lectura antropológica de Marx y Weber, sobre todo al hilo de la irracionalidad de la racionalidad o los presupuestos y orígenes religiosos de la racionalidad que es vector e índice de la modernidad.

[Hussein Harbi]

كُنتُ قد قرأت عن ماركس (بصفته عالم اجتماع) وفيبر فقرأت هذا الكتاب لتتكثّف لديّ الرؤية، والكتاب صغير (١٤٤ صفحةً) لكنه كتابٌ مُتعب لفيلسوف ألماني عميق. ماركس باستلابه وفيبر بعقلنته، ومصادرهما الأساسية سواء كان هيغل وفيورباخ بالنسبة لماركس أو دلتاي بالنسبة للآخر.. كتابٌ جيّد إلا أنه لم يضف لي الكثير، بعض الصفحات قرأتها عدّة مرّات ورغم ذلك استعصت بعض الأسطر على الفهم!..

[Breno Coelho]

This is a weird one. It doesm't seem to have a public; it doesn't have anything to say about points of contact between the two outmen, just having a very small chapter at the end about weber's critique of Stamler's version of historical materialism. As a sumary of the thought of Weber and Marx, its's suposed to be oriented to people familiar with their works. Frankly it leaft me baffled. I'd say avoid it unless you have an exam and havent read Marx or Weber in a while.

[Alex]

A short and sweetie. Uses the Heidegger weapon on two of the late greats. Explores their 'world' (bourgeois-capitalist contradictory/disenchanted/rationalized/reified) and the 'man' that their philosophy presupposes. My version comes with some nifty prefaces by Turner and the translators.

[Ashadul]

Nice

[versarbre]

Clarity!