Abstract:
This talk attempts to read Max Weber’s treatise on Chinese Confucianism and Taoism, contained in his magnum opus Wirtschaftsethik der Weltreligionen, as a critique of a rationalism that Weber sees as the core component of Christian puritanism and as the foundational force for the rise of capitalism in Europe and America. This talk is cautious about understanding Weber’s theoretical effort as a triumphant historicist and cultural legitimation for European capitalism in the early twentieth century. Rather it discusses a deep cultural pessimism that informs Weber’s transcultural endeavor. Moreover, the talk hopes to develop the concept “world as method” through the reading of Weber’s works.

Short bio:
Frau Zhang ist Associate Professor of German an der University of California in Davis, USA. Ihr Buch „Transculturality and German Discourse in the Age of European Colonialism” wurde 2017 von Northwestern University Press publiziert. Ihre Forschungsinteressen sind das globale 18. Jahrhundert, postkoloniale Theorie, komparative literarische Moderne und Asian-German studies. Nach einem Studium an der Peking Universität, China (B.A.) und der Universität Tübingen (M.A.) promovierte Frau Zhang an der Duke University.