On Orient and Occident in Max Weber. Nelson

On Orient and Occident in Max Weber Author(s): BENJAMIN NELSON Source: Social Research, Vol. 43, No. 1, Interaction Between European and American Social Science (SPRING 1976), pp. 114-129 Published by: The New School Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40970216 . Accessed: 13/09/2013 15:16 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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On Orient and Occident in Max Weber* /

BY BENJAMIN NELSON

IVJLaxWeberwas surely,but he was notsolely:(a) a methodologist or logicianofthesocialsciencesand sociology;(b) a mastertheorist ever pressingforwardto lay the foundationsof an interpretive sociologyof social action,acknowledgingthe possibilityand the desirabilityof causal understanding;(c) a sociologistof religion distinctionsof church,sect, intenton establishingand illustrating charisma,asceticismand mysticisms innerworldly) (otherworldy, and the variantsof theseorientationsand structuresin different mixes of societiesin different partsof the world; (d) a political ofstratum, sociologistwhoseaim it was to establishthesignificance in well as as class, definingthe status,party,and stylesof life, conduct,identity, organization, authority, patternsof legitimation, whose acts and writings and so on; (e) a political controversialist, need to be interpreted againstthebackgroundof his lifelongpolitical participationsand even partisanship. Weber was surelynot an epigone of Marx, as too many have recentlybeen saying,one whose contribution if,indeed,he can - consistedin be said to have made any distinctivecontribution! of the powerof stratum, his havingdeepened our understanding domination." I "bureaucratic status,and party in an era of would not even agree thatWeber's entirelife was devoted to a 1 "dialogue with the ghostof Marx." iCf. Albert Salomon, "German Sociology," in Georges Gurvitch and Wilbert E. Moore, eds., Twentieth CenturySociology (New York: Philosophical Library, 1945), pp. 58&-614at 596.


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From the avowedlycivilizationalpoint of view adopted in the - I do not sayonly- a comparative presentessay,Weberwas surely 2 historicaldifferential sociologist intent on establishinga new - an analytiche trustedwould become supesociologicalanalytic riorto Marx,to Simmel,to Toennies,to all othersdoingsociology. The key to this analyticconsistedof his forthright adoption of horizons and "civilizational-analytic" "universal-historical" perinvesand for as bases historical, systematic comparative, spectives tigations. His main aim was to studythe processesand patterns of the different constellationsof "religion"and "world,"or econillustratedin the varied social and cultural onomy-society-polity mixesconstitutedacrossthe world'shistories. of thisviewpointis clearlyillustratedwithvariaThe centrality tionsof stressin the twomain bodies of his work,his Gesammelte (CollectedEssaysin theSociology Aufsätzezur Religionssoziologie und Gesellschaft(Economy and of Religion) and his Wirtschaft a bit the studies included in the former Put simply, Society). collectionundertaketo explain in whatwaysthe concretedistincWest can onlybe understood tiveactualitiesof the contemporary in theirdepthsagainstthe historicallyspecificcivilizationalrealitieswhichcame to be fusedin the Occident. It is mainlyagainst thisbackgroundthatWeber is here intenton makingsenseof the social and culturalstrucinstitutional, patterns,paces of different turesto be foundacrossthe world. These concernsand stressesare surelynot absentfromEconomy and Societybut in the main the studiesgatheredin Economyand Societyare more differential sociologicalratherthan comparative historical While surelythe fruitof a consuminglifelonginterest in thedifferent waysin whicheconomy,society,polity,and religion affectedone anotherin different civilizationalsettings,thiswork movesmore centrallythan do the studiesin the CollectedEssays 2 See my"Max Weber's'Author'sIntroduction' (1920):A MasterClue to His Main of this Aims,"SociologicalInquiry44 (1974):269-278,especiallyat 271 fordiscussion perspective.


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in the Sociologyof Religion towardthe elaborationof the larger analyticof which I have spoken above. The "Civilizational-Analytic" Perspective differential Weber'sdistinctivecomparative-historical, sociological perspectivesare implicitin his work fromthe earliestyears of his research. They are alreadyapparentin his veryearlywritingsin the twodecades beforehis ProtestantEthic (1904-05): his doctoraldissertationdone under the supervisionof Levin Goldschmidt;his habilitationdedicatedto August Meitzen; his bookmisse in Alterum" length encyclopediaarticle on "Agrarverhäl on (1897, 1898,ed. 1909). His luminousessay "The Social Causes of the Decay of the AncientWorld" (1896) also illustratesthis focuswith particularclarity. In all these essaysWeber already to certainfeaturesof theWesternworldwhich showeda sensitivity had a unique aspect or at least had achieved an extraordinary ascendencyand priorityin the West. A new high point whichhe was himselflater to call his "universal historical"horizonscame with the studiescomprisinghis Ethicand theSpiritof Capitalism(1904-05). Protestant We mustdig well belowtheconventionalsurfacesofthefamiliar readingsofthisrenownedworkto graspthefactthatitsunderlying argumentsare reared on the following generally unnoticed foundationswhichcryout to be graspedin "civilization-analytic" terms: (1) Diverse socioculturaland civilizationalcomplexesare distinguishedfromone anotherby the degreeto whichtheyinstitutionalizedifferential overcomings(in the directionof rationalization and universalization)of invidiousdualismsof diversesorts. (After1910 in his studiesgatheredunder the rubric "The Economic Ethic of the World Religions,"Weber was to give great analysisof the varied paces and prominencein this differential


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as well as rationalizationand universalextentsof fraternization, ization.) (2) Two main sortsof dualisms were transcendedin special waysand degreesin the course of the Westerndevelopment:(a) The dualism illustratedby the distinctionbetweenthe brotheror "insider"and the other,the alien or enemy"outsider." (I have treateda paradigmaticinstanceof thistranscendancein some detail in my Idea of Usury,whichbears the subtitle:From Tribal Brotherhoodto UniversalOtherhood.)(b) The dualism of "reliasceticismin the gion/world." The overcomingof otherworldly formof innerworldly asceticismas a principleof theliferegulation of conducthad especiallygreatsalience in the West. Indeed, it was only in the postmedievalWest and in the West alone that this extraordinary breakthroughwas effected. Only here there occurs the permeationinto everycornerof the everydayworld asceticismand a (includingpsycheitself)of a new innerworldly new rationalizedmodel of organizationof conduct and a new methodicalplanning in all the linked structuresof enterprise, organization,and orientationsto work,wealth,welfare,identity, and so on. (3) It was the overcomingof the later dualism which was affectedwiththehelp of "ProtestantEthic." Particularimportance on thisscoreattachedto the teachingand workof Luther,Calvin, and the Calvinistsects,especiallyin America. asceticismeventuatedin thesanctification (4) This innerworldly - and callings. of this-worldly employments (5) It was not rationalismso much as irrationalism,the irrationalismof Luther, Calvin, the Puritans,which spurred this of theWest. towardtheunique new rationalizations breakthrough (6) Rationalizationhas been the mostfatefulforceof the modern world. Its progressthroughoutthe spheresof regulationof conduct, enterprise,organization,technology,law, science has of the cosmos been eventuatingin the profounddisenchantment of our age. characteristic Issues of this typeand scope almost never arose in the course


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of the heated polemicswhichquicklyfollowedupon the appearEthic. Weber ended thistryingdebate ance ofWeber'sProtestant with the publication of his Anti-CriticalLast Word to Felix Rachfahl in 1910. Now free to embark on a vastlyextended journey,he quickly plunged into studies which related him to the widerhorizonsand therangeof problemswhichwere to busy him until his death in 1920. These led him to launch a whole seriesof mental experimentsin comparativehistoricalsociology of the world religionsand of the centralstructuralconstellations illustratedin the historiesof the foremostpolitical-economicsocietalcomplexesof the world. One of thesethought-experiments provedto be The Religion of China. Here he engagedhimselfto testhis hypothesisabout of irrationalismover rationalismin spurthe criticalsignificance towardthe unique new rationalizationsin ring the breakthrough the West. China was to prove to be the case of a most highly developedethicalrationalismthathad neverbeen dislodgedfrom its prudential,traditional,and calculativecast,thisbeing due to and the lack of two orientationswhichcould sparkfraternization universalization:an ontologicalcommitmentto a transmundane reality,and a charismaticopeningto prophecy. Arisingfromthisthoughtexperimentwere questionsthattook the followingform: • How, in the lightof universalhistory,describeand explain theuniquenessof patternand pace of thedevelopmentand apparent fateof rationalizedWesterncultureand civilization? • How understandand explain the apparentfailureof China to moderncapitalistorganizaand India to achievebreakthroughs modernscience,industrialrevolution? tion enterprises, • How explain whythe highlydevelopedrationalismof Confucianismdid not eventuatein the fullrationalizationof Chinese society? • How understandand explain the likelyfateof Westernman and charismaticrenewalin the disand thechancesforfulfillment enchantedcosmosof thetwentieth century?


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• How describethe patternsof structuralrelationsso farfound to appear- and yetlikelyto appear- in the economies,societies, of the East and West alike? politics,and religiousinstitutions • How assessthe chancesforpersonaland civic libertyin Ger3 many,the United Statesof Americaand Russia? A fullerdiscussionof Chinese and Indian developmentsis reservedfor the two next sectionsof this essay. The preliminary mentionabove of some largercomparativeissuesassociatedwith thesecivilizationalcomplexesservesto underscorethat,beginning withwhatcame to be knownas theReligion of China,we not only see ever more clearlyWeber's differentially "civilizational-analytic" perspective. Indeed, we see this more clearlyhere than in theearlierProtestantEthic,althoughit is not lackingthereeither, as I have indicated. Weberwas hardat workas earlyas 1910-11 on partsofEconomy and Societywhich he had undertakento do in connectionwith the Grundrisseder Sozialökonomik,the encyclopediahe had contractedto supervise. It now appears that the firstpart of Wirtschaftund Gesellschafthe completedmay have been the essay on the Occidentalcitywhichhe simplyentitled"Nicht-Legitime Herrschaft"and later included in his discussionof Herrschaft (which many preferto translateas "Domination") in Economy and Society. This essay marksa decisive turn in the way Weber thought about therelationsof East and West. Here Weber givespowerful of the Occidentalcitythat emphasisto the unique characteristics was apparentlynever paralleled anywhereelse in the world. It was only the Occidentalcitywhichdeveloped autonomousstructures,which legislatedon its own behalf, which had an independentmilitia,a market,a courtsystem,and whichwas a deter3 Wolfgang Mommsen, "Die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika im politischen Denken Max Webers," HistorischeZeitschrift213 (1971): 358-381, offersan especially suggestiveessay on this point; cf. Benjamin Nelson, "Max Weber, Ernst Troeltsch, and George Jellinekas Comparative Historical Sociologists,"Sociological Analysis 36 (1975): 229-240.


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minatepoliticalentityand not simplythe site of an imperialor hierocraticbureaucracy. How had the distinctiveOccidental citycome into existence? in the Here Weber placed centralemphasisupon the significance West of a breakthroughtransformative process that was most closelylinked to the unique Westernheritageand influenceof a processthatWeber Jewishand Christiannotionsofbrotherhood, describedas fraternization.4 As Weber read the evidence,the medievalcity (unlike its Oriwas markedbya unique degreeof fraternization entalcounterpart) and universalization stemmingfromthe threemain axes of West- the Greek,the Roman, and the Jewish-Chrisern development Weber highlightsthislast axis and its partin tian. Interestingly, in a passagewhichfewhave troubled the processof fraternization to emphasize,when he remarksthattherewould not have been a unique Occidental city had there not occurred the breaking among the early Christians throughof restrictiveparticularisms in theircommensalismin Antioch.6 Weber had a verydeep unof thecriticalimportanceofovercomingtherestraints derstanding on wider commercium,connubium,and commensalismin the new communities,new comdevelopmentof wideruniversalities, new communions. munications, It is hardlypossible in this settingto detail the vast insights spread throughWeber's pages on "Orient and Occident." Here we can onlycall directattentionto a fewneglectedissues. * Nelson, "Max Weber's 'Author's Introduction',"p. 272; see also Benjamin Nelson, The Idea of Usury,2nd ed. (Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press, 1969). Too few authors have noted and built upon Weber's emphases on this process. This is even true for Wolfgang Schieder,"Brüderlichkeit,Bruderschaft,. . . Verbrüderung,BruVol. derliebe," in Reinhart Kosselleck and others,eds., GeschichtlicheGrundbegriffe, 1 (Stuttgart: Ernst Klett, 1973), who, however, offersmany interestingWestern European historical illustrations. See also his Anfänge der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung: Die Auslandsvereine im Jahrzehnt nach der Julirevolution von 1830 (Stuttgart:Ernst Klett, 1963). BMax Weber, The Religion of India: Hinduism and auddmsm, translated Dy H. H. Gerth and Don Martindale (New York: Free Press, 1958), p. 98; cf. Max Weber, Economy and Society,translated and edited by G. Roth and C. Wittich, 3 vols. (Totowa, N.J.: BedminsterPress, 1968), 3: 1242.


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in China Failed Rationalization Weber'sviewson the East are bothhistorically generaland in are character. generalin the sense historically specific They thatWeberseescertainsortsof phenomenathatgenerally charto theWest. in comparison or contrast acterizetheEast,whether WeberperceivedthatbothChina and India could,indeed,be foundto exhibitextraordinary and culturalstrucinstitutional tureswhichnotablyinfluenced theWestand mighthaveserved of indigenous theWest; as springboards development paralleling otherstructures to havelargelyservedas counterare discovered that have had a partin slowingthetransformainfluences vailing tive breakthroughs of the East to the complexstructures of rationalizations and rationalisms whichdevelopedin theWest. Weber'sviewsare historically in thatthedifferentiated specific of individualEasterncivilizations are discussedin their patterns historical We thissectionmainly focus shall, therefore, specificity. on Weber'sapproachtospecification oftheChinesedevelopments and the comparison of China and the West. Our nextsection willbe centered on India. Weberreminds us,as JosephNeedham6 is nowadays doingon a monumental scale,thatlongbeforetheWest,Chinaknewthe rudder,printing, compass,the fore-and-aft papermoney,and a hostof otherinventions essentialto passagesto higherdevelop- here again Needham ment. However,as Weber understood and othershave been more recentlyexploringin detail- the Chinesedid noteffect thebreakthrough to the''Industrial Revolution"or a universalrationalscience,a mathematical of physics the Galileantype.7Why? 6 Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China, 5 vols, in 7 parts (New York: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1954-74); Benjamin Nelson, "Sciences and Civilizations, 'East' and 'West': Joseph Needham and Max Weber," in Robert S. Cohen and Marx W. Wartofsky,eds., Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 11 (Dordrecht and Botson: D. Reidel, 1974), pp. 445-493. 7 Nathan Sivin has distinctiveapproaches in this area; these have been reviewed in Needham, Science and Civilization in China, Vol. 5, Pt. 2. Sivin is now at work on an essay describinghis recent and currentstudies.


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Weber's main theseshere include the followingreflections: • The overripeConfucian rationalismof conduct and belief reinforcedtraditionalistparticularism,patrimonialpersistently a ism,and praxismofritualetiquetteand sacromagicalobservance. • The overwhelmingauthorityof the fiveaxial relationships stood in the way of the passagesto ethical and juridical universality. Forensicstructuresof the Westernvarietywere slow to develop. Thus, a systemof rationalizedjudicial proceduresand courtsbasedupon formalized juridicalcanonsdid notfullyemerge. Weber also developscorrelatedcontrastsbetweenkeystructures of China and the West: asso• China remaineduntouchedby thegreattransformations ciated with scientificrationalismof the Greeks,the juridical rationalismand universalityof the Romans, the propheticdemagassociicizationof the Hebrews,and the universalfraternization techand ated with Christianity. If universalrational science of conductin the spiritof innerworldly nology,if self-regulation asceticism,failedto appear in China, it was because,amongother facts,China was not penetratedby a Euclid, a Ptolemy,an Ulpian, an Amos,a Paul, a Benedict,an Abelard,a Luther,a Calvin. • Despite the advances in respectto shipping,manufacture, moneylending,moneychangingand banking,the Orient never did develop a powerfulfoundationforrationalizedmass production. Mark Elvin and others have sought to explain this by forChina of what Elvin calls the highwritingon the significance 8 level "equilibriumtrap." • Lacking a transmundanehorizon to spur propheticinsurgency,theChinesewerenevershakenfromtheirtradition. When thisdid come as in the Taiping Rebellion, China was alreadyin the throesof European and Americancolonialism. China was to learn of what the Chinese were to call "Mr. Science" and "Mr. Democracy"directlyfromthe West.9 s Mark Elvin, The Pattern of the Chinese Past (Stanford: Stanford University Press,1973),pp. 298-316. » William T. de Bary and others,eds., Sources of Chinese Iradttton, 2 vois. (iNew York: Columbia UniversityPress,1964).


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With specificreferenceto the culturalsphere,all of the following were notablylackingin China: • Universitieswhichwere the centerof relativelyfree-ranging intellectualsand professionalswho were drawn togetherfrom medieval manylandsor provinces. Nothinglike the international universityappeared in China. • Voluntaryassociationsand committeesof correspondents of intellectualswho made it theirresponsibilityto promotefuller and philosophicaldevelopmentsin differintelligenceof scientific ent lands. Thus, therewere no academiesin China comparable to thosewhichflourishedin Europe at the timeof Galileo. • Cumulativedevelopmentsin mathematics.10Chinese developmentsin the sciencesweremainlyin the serviceof the imperial structuresof astrologicalforecastingfor the sake of maintaining the appropriateritualresponsesin respectto the calendar.11 ThroughoutWeber's discussionsof China, and even more explicitlythroughouthis discussionof India, he continuesto place the strongeststresson the criticalpassagestowardsocietalfraternizationin the directionof universalizationand universalitiesin everysphere of social relationsand culture- science, law, conscience,^etc. Withouthimselfever sayingso in so manywords, Weber was aware of the two-wayrelationsbetween passages to universalizationin the spheresof culturalexpression. In one of my previous essays,I have called this the "double dialectic of double universalizationprocesses."12 Weber did understandthat the two directlyand reciprocally affectedone anothermostpowerfully.In the absence of fraternizationsin the social and societalspheresone could not expectthe in the culturalhorizonsand symbolicconstellafullbreakthrough 10 Particularlyvaluable illustrationsand discussions of these issues will be found in Ulrich Libbrecht, Chinese Mathematics in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge: MIT Press,1973). n The learned and suggestiveolder study of W. Eberhard, "Contributions to the Astronomyof the Han Period," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 1 (July 1936): 194-235,remains trulyhelpful here. 12Nelson, "Max Weber's 'Author's Introduction'."


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tions. In the absence of effective wideningsof universalitiesin communication,"conscience/*science,and law, passages in the direction of expanded communitiesand communionsbeyond lack fora continuingspur. familyand clan particularisms We turnnow to Weber's discussionof India.

Failed Fraternizationin India receivesthe greatest the issueof fraternization Not surprisingly, between in Weber's of the stress majordifferences analyses possible the West and India. Weber fullyunderstoodthat even at the time he was writing,India was far fromhavingexperiencedthe culovercomingof inheritedbarriersto full social fraternization, and institutionalrationalization. tural universalization, The key elementsof Hinduism and Buddhism,he was conasceticworldvinced,had been thespiritofcasteand otherworldly a not be could there denial. While theseprevailed, singleethical standardforall, nor could thereoccurdecisivestepsin the breaking down of the restrictivedistinctionsbetween "religion" and and higher "world,""insiders"and "outsiders,"folktraditionalism culture. However alike in appearance particular Indian institutions seemed at times to Occidental analogues, the Indian prototypes such as did not trulyparallel the distinctiveWesterninstitutions or the theguild and otherelementsof the occupationalstructures Occidental city. From at least the High Middle Ages forward, Westerneconomy,polity,the Westernuniversity, philosophyand courses in characterand ran different sciencewere verydifferent fromthe Indian institutions. The fundamentally importantcontrastbetweencaste and the guild, or any otheroccupationalassociationof the West, is strikingly revealed in Weber's characterizationof "world-historical differences":


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The uniquenessof thedevelopment of India lay in thefactthat in thecitiesled neitherto ofguildorganization thesebeginnings thecityautonomy of theOccidentaltypenor,afterthedevelopmentof the greatpatrimonialstates,to a social and economic of the territories to the "territorial organization corresponding economy"of the Occident.18 The existenceof the castesystem,whichprecededtheseorganizations,became paramount. In part,thiscaste systementirelydisplaced the otherorganizations;in part,it crippled them; it prevented them fromattainingany considerableimportance. The from "spirit"of this caste system,however,was totallydifferent thatof the merchantand craftguilds. at all timespreAlthough,as Weber believed, "fraternization it does not be to have supposescommensalism," actuallypracticed in everydaylife,but it mustbe rituallypossible. The casteorder betweenguild and caste is of precludedthis. Anotherdifference even greaterimportance. The occupational associations ofthemedievalOccidentwereoften in violent but at the same engaged struggles amongthemselves, timetheyevidenceda tendency towardsfraternization.14 of casteshas been and is impossiblebeCompletefraternization cause it is one of the constitutiveprinciplesof the castes that thereshould be at least rituallyinviolable barriersagainstcomcastes. As withall sociologiplete commensalism amongdifferent cal phenomena,the contrasthere is not an absoluteone, nor are transitionslacking,yet it is a contrastwhichin essentialfeatures has been historicallydecisive. Weber does not let his book on India close withoutventuringa numberof notable contrasts,e.g., contrastsof India and China, contrastsof Confucianismand Buddhism. Several of Weber's mostfelicitousdepictionsof thesecontrastsoccur in the courseof his excitingattemptsto providecomparativeanalysesof civilizais Weber,The ReligionofIndia,p. 33. 14Ibid.,p. 35.


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tional differencesagainst intercivilizational backgrounds.15 Thus, he writes: For Asia as a whole China played somewhatthe role of France in the modern Occident^ All cosmopolitan"polish" stems from China, to Tibet to Japan and outlyingIndian territories.Against this India has a significancecomparable to that of antique Hellenism. There are few conceptionstranscendingpractical interests in Asia whose source would not finallyhave to be sought there. Particularly,all orthodoxand heterodoxsalvationreligions that could claim a role in Asia similarto that of Christianityare Indian. There is only one great difference, apart fromlocal and in becomingthe them of succeeded none exceptions pre-eminent singledominatingconfession,as was the case forus in the Middle Ages afterthe peace of Westphalia. Asia was, and remains,in principle,the land of the freecompetition of religions,"tolerant" somewhat in the sense of late antiquity. That is to say, tolerant except for restrictionsfor reason of state, which, finally,also for us today remain the boundaryof all religioustolerationonly with otherconsequences. Where these political interestsin any way came into question, in Asia as well theyhad religiousconsequencesin the grand style. They were greatestin China, but they also appeared in Japan and, to someextent,in India. As in Athensin the timeof Socrates, so in Asia a sacrificecould be demandedin behalfof Deisdaimonie. And, finally,religiouswars of the sects and militaristicmonastic ordersalso played a role in Asia until the nineteenthcentury.16 The differenceof stress between ancient Buddhism and Confucianism is put as follows: AncientBuddhismrepresentsin almost all, practicallydecisive points the characteristicpolar opposite of Confucianismas well as of Islam. It is a specificallyunpolitical and anti-politicalstatus religion, more precisely,a religious "technology"of wandering mendicantmonks. Like all Indian and of intellectually-schooled it a "salvation religion,"if one is to and is theology philosophy use the name "religion" foran ethical movementwithouta deity and withouta cult. More correctly,it is an ethic with absolute to the question of whetherthereare "gods" and how indifference in termsof the ''how," "fromwhat," "to what exist. Indeed, they end" of salvation,Buddhism representsthe most radical formof 15Donald Nielsen, "Two Civilizational Equations Comparing 'East' and 'West' in Max Weber's Sociology,"unpublished manuscript. i« Weber, The Religion of India, pp. 329-330.


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conceivable. Its salvation is a solely personal salvation-striving act of the single individual. There is no recourse to a deity or savior. From Buddha himselfwe know no prayer. There is no religiousgrace. There is, moreover,no predestinationeither.. . . Buddhism negates the ordinaryconceptsof salvation. A concept of sin based on an ethic of intentionsis as little congenial forBuddhism as it was forHinduism in general. Certainlythere were sins forBuddhisticmonks,even deadly sins which excluded the offenderforeverfrom the fellowship. And there were sins which only required penance. However, everythingthat hinders salvationis by no means a "sin." In fact,sin is not the finalpower inimicalto salvation. Not "evil" but ephemerallifeis the obstacle to salvation; salvation is sought fromthe simplysenselessunrest of all structuresof existencein general. All "morality"could only be a means,hence,could have meaning only insofaras it is a means to salvation. In the last analysis, however,this is not the case. Passion per se, passion for God, even in the formof the loftiestenthusiasmis absolutelyinimical to salvationbecause all desiremeans attachmentto life. Basically, hatred is no more inimical to salvation than all formsof passion. It is on the same footingas the passionatelyactive devotion to ideals. The concept of neighborlylove, at least in the sense of the great Christianvirtuosiof brotherliness, is unknown.17 As one might anticipate, Weber's discussion of India places stress on the immense importance of otherworldlyasceticism and mysticism in India. To be sure, the structures which were to be realized in the Western monastic communities had their origin in India. But India was not to undergo what was decisive for the West, the breaking through of traditional structuresand the full institutionalization of innerworldly asceticism as well as (I am currentlycontending) innerworldly mysticism. I have sought to tell part of this storyof "double conjunction" elsewhere.18

The Meeting of East and West Our presentdiscussionof the Orient in Weber muststop here. A comprehensivereport would trulyneed to include Weber's it Ibid., pp. 206-208. 18Nelson, "Max Weber, Ernst Troeltsch, and George Jellinek."


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analysisof ancientJudaismand Islam along with his discussions of the Far East. Fortunately,several specialized discussionsof Weber's analysisof Judaismand Islam are now available.19 in thisthemewould need to speak to an Finally,anyreflections issuetoo oftenneglectedin olderdiscussionsof Weber,one which is currentlyprovingto be at the center of many of the latest writingson Weber's centralaims. Where,one must ask, would Weber have stood in the worldwidedebate now in progresson of the Westthe issuesof the possibleultimacyand irreversibility 20 ernpatternof development? Did Weber teach,as some now seem to claim,thatthe Western the highestformof civilizationalachievedevelopmentrepresents mentwhichhas yetappearedin mankind'ssocial evolution?21 Is Weber committedto theview thattheWesternpatternswere not only unique but necessaryand irreversible? I permitmyselfto offera provisionalopinionon thesequestions at this time: Weber did contendthat the West had, so far,seen a unique developmentin respectto the complex structuresof institutionalized rationality, and universality.He fraternization, rationalism, nevermeant to claim that these structureswere independentof Easterninfluence,ultimatein point of development,irreversible. So faras I can tell, he would have had no troublein admitting thatthe West could go East and the East could- and would- go Western.22 i» See especially Julius Guttmann, "Max Webers Soziologie des antiken Judentums," Monatsschriftfür Geschichte und Wissenschaftdes Judentums 69 (JulyAugust 1925): 195-223; Maxime Rodinson, Islam and Capitalism (London: Allen Lane, 1974): and Bryan S. Turner, Weber and Islam (New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974). 20I sought to conveythe spiritof this discussionin "Max Weber's 'Author's Introduction'." 2i See especially Talcott Parsons, The System of Modern Societies (Englewood Cliffs,N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971); cf. Nelson, "Max Weber's 'Author's Introduction'." 22Benjamin Nelson, "Civilizational Complexes and IntercivilizationalEncounters," Sociological Analysis34 (1973): 79-105.


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Weber died in 1920 too soon to have a reliable understanding of whatwere to be the shapesof thingsto come. Today fifty-five yearslaterwe are farfromhavingclosed thegap resultingfromthedrasticremakingsof the structureof the world our sincehis passing. Would thisnot be a good timeto intensify realities to explorethe civilizationaland intercivilizational efforts 28 of life? the last decade his he soughtto illuminateduring 28The main contributionsof leading scholars who have sought to carry forward Weber's work in these spheres is discussed in Benjamin Nelson and Donald Nielsen, "Civilizational Patterns and Intercivilizational Encounters, A Bibliography/' Bulletin of the International Committeefor the Comparative Study of Civilizations 9 (Summer 1973): 3-15; cf. Nelson, "Max Weber, ErnstTroeltsch,and George Jellinek"; Benjamin Nelson, "Max Weber as a Pioneer of Civilizational Analysis,"Comparative CivilizationsBulletin (in press).


On Orient and Occident in Max Weber. Nelson

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