The Element of Irrationality: Max Weber's Diagnosis of Modern Culture

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Abstract
Max Weber's diagnosis of modern culture as presented for example in Science as Vocation includes the idea of differentiation between the spheres of science, art, and law and ethics But Weber also claims that all genuine values have gone from public life The parallel processes of rationalization and intellectualization have resulted in a loss of individual freedom and meaning This diagnosis does not simply follow from his over-narrow concept of rationality, as claimed by Habermas To Weber rationalization is not identical with the increase of instrumental rationality Rather, it is the formal and abstract, or quantifying nature of the modern type of rationality which is totally alien to all value considerations In Weber's opinion there is thus an unavoidable element of irrationally inherent in the very process of rationalization Weber obviously also wanted to emphasize the paradoxical nature of legal authority and formal bureaucracy The legitimacy of the modern type of domination does not rest on any shared norms or values, but is by nature exclusively procedural and formal An analysis of Weber's views about modernity thus reveals a highly conscious critique of the Project of Enlightenment

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