Week 9.2: Franz Kafka & Max Weber

A statue of Franz Kafka, illustrating many of the themes from his work.

The Czech-born German-language novelist and short-story writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924) presented the experience of man's utter isolation. Most biographical-centered critics have read this alienation as a result of being born into a German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, a city populated overwhelmingly by local Czechs. As such, Kafka was a member of a minority group (Jewish) within a larger minority group (Germans). While this is no doubt an important influence, it does not give proper credit to Kafka's insightful reflection on the condition of modernity. Kafka's works center on nightmarish realities, transformations, and the power of the modern bureaucracy. In his works man finds himself in a labyrinth which he will never understand. "Before the Law," which we will be reading today, is a parable taken from his longer uncompleted novel The Trial (1925). The novel tells the story of K. who is accused of an unnamed crime and whose options for acquittal are both obscure and hopeless. "Before the Law" encapsulates many of these themes. (Adapted from Encyclopedia of World Biography)

Arguably the foremost social theorist of the twentieth century, Max Weber (1864-1920) is known as a principal architect of modern social science along with Karl Marx and Emil Durkheim. Weber's wide-ranging contributions gave critical impetus to the birth of new academic disciplines such as sociology and public administration as well as to the significant reorientation in law, economics, political science, and religious studies. His methodological writings were instrumental in establishing the self-identity of modern social science as a distinct field of inquiry; he is still claimed as the source of inspiration by empirical positivists and their hermeneutic detractors alike. More substantively, Weber's two most celebrated contributions were the “rationalization thesis,” a grand meta-historical analysis of the dominance of the west in modern times, and the “Protestant Ethic thesis,” a non-Marxist genealogy of modern capitalism. Together, these two theses helped launch his reputation as one of the founding theorists of modernity. In addition, his avid interest and participation in politics led to a unique strand of political realism comparable to that of Machiavelli and Hobbes. As such, Max Weber's influence was far-reaching across the vast array of disciplinary, methodological, ideological and philosophical reflections that are still our own and increasingly more so. (From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Reading:
Franz Kafka, "Before the Law"  (course packet)

Viewing:
The Crash Course videos below.

Study Questions:
Please download the Max Weber & Modernity study sheet below. It outlines the second video embedded below. Fill it out (type) and answer the questions at the end of it. 







BONUS!