解读韦伯的三大隐喻探测韦伯对现代性的洞察

Deciphering Weber’s Three Metaphors——An Exploration of Weber’s Insights on Modernity

There are numerous works discussing Max Weber’s religious, political, and economic sociology and his value-free methodology, but few of them picture the world in Weber’s eye as a whole. Enlightened by the rationalization-modernity approach to Weberian study, which owes much to K. Lowith and W. Schluchter for its establishment, I intend to put Weber’s often-separately-discussed ideas about the modern world together into one picture. To accomplish this, I find Weber’s three well-known metaphors-“disenchantment of the world,” “struggle of gods,” and “iron cage”-to be a good integrating point. The “disenchantment of the world” refers to the religious rationalization accompanied by the development of scientific rationalism, which impelled the world into a modern era featured by “struggle of gods” and “iron cage.” “Struggle of gods” brings to mind a kind of nihilism and thus conflicts in the field of value while “iron cage” evokes a picture in which modern man, who has lost the sense of vocation, is dominated and shaped by an impersonal and objectified social system. The three metaphors together present us with a Weber in tension in regards to his image of modern man. In the concluding part of this article, I include a discussion of some of the contemporary theoretical endeavors to overcome Weber’s ambivalence and cultural pessimism by restructuring the conceptual framework of rationality.

There are numerous works discussing Max Weber＇ s religious, political, and economic sociology and his value-free methodology, but few of them picture the world in Weber＇ s eye as a whole. Enlightened by the rationalizationmodernity approach to Weberian study, which owes much to K. Lowith and W. Schluchter for its establishment, I intend to put Weber＇s often-separately -discussed ideas about the modern world together into one picture. To accomplish this, I fred Weber＇ s three well-known metaphors -“disenchantment of the world,” “struggle of gods,” and “iron cage”-to be a good integrating point. The “disenchantment of the world”refers to the religious rationalization accompanied by the development of scientific rationalism, which impelled the world into a modem era featured by “struggle of gods” and “iron cage”“Struggle of gods” brings to mind a kind of nihilism and thus conflicts in the field of value while “iron cage” evokes a picture in which modem man, who has lost the sense of vocation, is dominated and shaped by an impersonal and objectified social system. The three metaphors together present us with a Weber in tension in regards to his image of modem man. In the concluding part of this article, I include a discussion of some of the contemporary theoretical endeavors to overcome Weber＇ s ambivalence and cultural pessimism by restructuring the conceptual framework of rationality.