Re: Re: Weber and rationality

[kelley <kwalker2@xxxxxxx>]

At 04:24 PM 12/6/00 -0400, Ricardo Duchesne wrote:
> kelly, what you say about rationality is true though I would be careful
> not to confuse Weber's concept of  formal rational action
> with rationality per se.  W delineates four types of rationality:
> formal, practical, theoretical, and substantive. Rational
> capital accounting, refers to formal rationality as applied  to the
> economic sphere. This formal (economic) rationality should *not*
> be mistaken with the mere
> pursuit of  gain or the calculation of one's self interest. Every human in
> every culture is rational in this practical sense, and some cultures
> did indeed develop formally rational institutions, as exemplified by
> the Chinese bureaucratic state and its system of examinations. W
> would insist however that, in the West, formal rationality came to
> penetrate every sphere of live, including the economy as
> symbolized by double-bookkeeping.

i'm sorry richard, did i say anything about calculations of self
interest?  i was talking about the organizational/institutional form of
rationality.  weber operates on three levels:  individual, organizational,
and cultural/institutional.  when i say that rationality in terms of
rationalized capitalism is composed of characteristics that reveal it to be
standardized, etc i'm not speaking of individual level motivations.


kelley


> .