Abstracts

Max Weber Studies Vol. 2 No. 1 (November 2001): 65-80

The Lamentable Chain of Misunderstandings:

Weber's Debate with H. Karl Fischer

David J. Chalcraft

This article focuses on stylistic, socio-linguistic and textual dimensions of Weber’s exchanges with H. Karl Fischer in 1907 and 1908. These exchanges constitute the first stages of the famous Protestant Ethic Debate. A close concentration on the literary features of the debate illustrates how the ‘lamentable chain of misunderstandings’ (as Fischer labelled the exchanges) was further compounded. Focusing on these intertextual relations leads to a deeper knowledge of Weber’s attitudes to reading and interpretation and the often subtle ways in which his PE thesis, and his verstehende Soziologie, developed across time in response to debate.