Max Weber’s Theory of Personality

Max Weber's writings in The Sociology of Religion are today acknowledged as a classic of the social sciences in the twentieth century. They are key texts for understanding Weber’s central sociological concepts concerning Western and Eastern ‘civilisations’. This book argues that the concept and problematic of personality plays a pivotal role within these works. Providing a detailed reconstruction of this concept within Weber’s systematic studies of world religions as well as throughout his methodological and political writings, this book shows its complex development within three strictly related problematics associated with Weber’s influential comparative historical sociology and theory of social action – individuation, politics and orientalism. Together they shape and constitute what is distinctive in Max Weber’s theory of personality.

Sara R. Farris, Ph.D., studied at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. She is Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths University of London.
She was Member Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 2012-2013. She has published on sociological theory, political sociology, orientalism, international migration and gender studies.

“Sara R. Farris’s analysis of the different areas of Weber’s research is very informative and substantial; her differentiated ideology-critique is convincing and inspiring. By focusing on Weber’s concept of the Occidental ‘personality’ and its counter-image of an Asiatic 'non-personality', she has found an excellent theoretical key to lay bare the Orientalist pattern underlying his comparative analysis of world religions. Whoever tries to work with Weber’s sociological tools needs to be aware of the ideological baggage contained in his methodological approach.”
Jan Rehmann, author of Max Weber, Modernisierung als passive Revolution (Argument, 1998) and Theories of Ideology: The Powers of Alienation and Subjection (Brill, 2013).

“Sara R. Farris’s path-breaking book is the first systematic attempt to understand Max Weber’s central concept of personality. By means of powerful critical scrutiny, Farris reveals the class-based, Eurocentric and Orientalist presuppositions of Weber’s concept. Readers interested in Weber’s sociology should not miss this outstanding piece of research.”
Michael Löwy, author of La cage d’acier: Max Weber et le marxisme wébérien (Stock, 2013).