Weber’s “Strange Intoxication”

This essay locates in Max Weber’s body of work a theory of recognition in compulsion. With particular attention to Weber’s engagement with pre- and early modern sources, the essay argues that this theory illuminates his project of historical interpretation. For Weber, compulsion turns firsthand experience into a simple pattern or shape, inviting identification across differences in context. Ultimately, the essay shows that the “strange intoxication” of compulsive states of mind, though it might seem to transport the subject outside time and beyond the reach of material circumstance, does much more than misleadingly fuse distinct experiences; it also creates opportunities for and indeed motivates awareness of the concrete histories that connect them.