Weber was born in 1864, and was from the outset raised to be an intellectual. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on medieval law, but moved into contemporary political philosophy shortly after that. Weber, like Durkheim, was dissatisfied with the manner in which previous sociologists and philosophers had explained the process of modernization that the Industrial Revolution engendered within society. In fact, Weber denied that any form of social activity was economically motivated. He admitted that all activities have an economic, or resource, aspect, but vehemently disagreed with others (namely Marx) that economic considerations explained the way certain aspects of society reacted and developed (Coppleston, 1985).
Additionally, an important concept in dealing with Weber is directly tied to the German conception of Verstehen (understanding). For Weber, anyone attempting to make sense out of society must understand the sense of what is being studied. This concept of Verstehen leads directly to Weber's use of ideal types in both sociological and histo
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