STATUS, VANITY AND EQUAL DIGNITY IN WEBER,MAX POLITICAL-THOUGHT

The preoccupation of commentators with exposing the nationalist, Nietzschean and nihilistic aspects of Max Weber's thought has obscured the genuinely liberal character of his outlook. The overshadowing of Weber's liberal ideals is indicated by the pervasiveness of the assumption that he was an 'elitist' whose ethic was aristocratic in spirit. I challenge this assumption by focusing attention on two interrelated themes of Weber's thought that are often overlooked: his disparagement of conduct that is vain, self-satisfied or exhibits a snobbish status consciousness, on the one hand, and his commitment to the idea of the equal dignity, on the other. An aristocratic ethic prevails against the devotion to a cause, which Weber advocated, and leads to the solidification of status orders, which he feared.