The Nietzschean challenge

pp. 46-61

in: Martin Albrow, Max Weber's construction of social theory, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1990

Abstract

The Protestant and Kantian definitions of reality provided Weber both with the cognitive framework for his view of life and with a motivational structure. The world was mastered by reason, but intellect was accompanied by duty and the need for salvation. The sharpness of the conflict between rationality and irrationality was not a mere intellectual problem, it was a dilemma he felt deeply.